We associate truth with convenience, with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. — John Kenneth Galbraith
A recent issue of Entrepreneur Magazine gave me a clear insight: the people writing for the magazine are clearly not entrepreneurs. Moreover, like most print magazines, Entrepreneur Magazine is a slave to advertisers, pretty much publishing anything they're told to. Here are two examples of what I'm taking about. One, a recent article described Apple, the company, as an example of providing exceptional customer service. Well, much of the time, that may be true, but the example used in the article was pure idiocy.
A while back, Apple introduced the iPhone, which retailed at $500.00. Sales didn't meet expectations, so the price was reduced to $300.00. Not surprisingly, the early, loyal, buyers who paid an extra $200.00 for the iPhone expressed irritation. Still, Apple didn't offer these customers any compensation until being inundated with complaints. Did Apple offer to refund each customer $200.00? Of course not, that would be the proper thing to do--which most corporations couldn't care less about. Instead, Apple sent each person a $100.00 coupon--valid to purchase more Apple products! The coupon rebate was a joke and the worst part is it's not even equal to the initial overpayment. Apple could have at least sent out $200.00 coupons! Further, why would these customers even want to do more business with Apple? They were screwed for spending $500.00 on the iPhone! The reality? Corporations know very few people take the time to use coupons or mail in rebate offers. The coupons Apple distributed will mostly go unused--which is why they did it that way.
Apple’s poor handling of the iPhone incident is bad enough, but a magazine using it as an example of exemplary entrepreneurship and customer relations is reprehensible.
In another issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, a so-called "marketing expert" advised avoiding lengthy promotional ad copy for online product sales. She wrote that no one reads such copy, so you should get to the point in a few sentences. In theory, it seems like reasonable advice but only someone who's never sold products online would posit something so wrong. Anyone with any level of success selling products online, especially information products, knows you need well-written--and often lengthy--promotional copy to effectively sell those products. I wrote twenty-five pages of promotional copy for my last Kettlebell DVD set, The Boys Are Back In Town. Why? Because it's an expensive DVD and people need to know exactly why they should spend their hard-earned money on it. A few sentences won't cover that; I can't possibly convey all the great information within the DVD set in a few sentences. Do I expect everyone to read, word-for-word, 25 pages of ad copy? Of course not, but as they skim down the pages, people quickly realize the ton of information the DVD contains and why it's worth the price. The result? The DVD set, the most expensive DVD I've ever released, with the longest ad copy to promote it, ended up making more money than any other DVD I've put out in the time it's been on the market. The kicker? It's sold more total units than any other DVD I've produced, considering the time it's been available for sale.
Reality, and what you think will work, don't always add up. When you take advice, make sure it's based on reality--not what some so-called expert recommends.
Fortunately, I was able to curtail my disgust with Entrepreneur Magazine by reading a great book, Freakonomics, by Steve D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Levitt and Dubner are both economists with an intense desire to know why things are the way they are. Accepting conventional wisdom, or even common sense, isn't enough for them--they wanted to apply the science of economics in acquiring precise explanations. The book is a fascinating, thought-provoking read. Here are some of the topics I think may interest you, possibly changing how you see the world.
First, Dubner and Levitt look at why crime rates have declined over the years. Many people think it's due to having more police on the streets. Sounds reasonable, yes? Well, that may have little, if anything, to do with it. Both Washington, DC and Denver have about the same population yet DC, with many more police on the streets than Denver, has much higher crime than Denver. Dubner and Levitt instead draw a correlation between Roe vs. Wade and lower crime rates. Intrigued? They assert legalizing abortion prevented many would-be criminals from even existing. Not surprisingly, people who grow up in rough, impoverished neighborhoods are more likely to become criminals. The vast majority of abortions come from these same population centers. The legalization of abortion occurred in 1973 in the U.S. and the significant decrease in crime happened during the 1990's, when the unborn criminals would have been entering their criminal primes. Not an easy pill to swallow whether you're pro-choice or anti-abortion. Remember: reality and what you consider morality aren't always going to be aligned.
The next example I found fascinating had to do with drug dealers. The title of the chapter is Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live at Home With Their Moms? The media likes spreading illusions that most drug dealers are raking it in off the suffering of others, which creates especially bad PR for drug dealers, since nothing pisses off law-abiding citizens more than reports of criminals making lots more money than them! When people think of drug dealers, they think of Al Pacino, in Scarface, living in his mansion, or Wesley Snipes, as Nino Brown, in New Jack City getting rich of the misery of his own people. The reality is...most drug dealers aren't raking it in. Like any other job, there are a few people making a lot at the top while the majority are doing okay--or just getting by. The average drug dealer, according to Levitt and Dubner, makes about $3.30 an hour--far less than the minimum wage! These dealers typically supplement their drug dealing income with a legitimate job while living at home--with mommy--to get by. So why even bother dealing drugs? The illusion of working up to the top level someday--and enjoying the lifestyle perks that come with it--keeps most drug dealers engaged. Similar to multi-level marketing (aka pyramid schemes) most people selling drugs are making little money at all, much less livable incomes. What they have in common is a pipe dream that's unlikely to materialize.
Perception is rarely reality--things are infrequently what we'd like them to be. One reality that's certain is Entrepreneur Magazine is worthless for any real entrepreneur and Freaknomics is a great book for people who prefer thinking over spending their days alternately finding offense and seeking self-aggrandizement. All right, all right, this may be just my opinion...but at least it's coming from me, not paid advertisers.
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Live Life Aggressively!
Mike Mahler
***Article Edited by Teresa Blazey: teresa.blazey@gmail.com
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