Jun
8
Let's start with a caveat, before I get messages from people blaming me for the accident they've just had...
No sane person will take a silly risk which could end up in disaster. Taking ill-considered risks is a job for the stupid, egotistical (I'm thinking bankers here) or anyone who doesn't have enough understanding of "self preservation".
There are two types of risk: Risks to be avoided (those with a serious impact) and those which you can learn from. Obviously, the former type of risk means that it's likely you won't last long enough to learn from it.
...stick with me, I'm coming to the marketing lesson shortly...
Today's post has been promted by my teenage daughters work placement from school. This is a learning experience for 15 year old kids in real workplaces. We are particularly fortunate that she has found a workplace where the owners are very nice and helpful. Especially bearing in mind that they had to go through a risk assessment organised by the Council Education Department.
The upshot of this "risk assessment" is that my daughter is not allowed to access half of the premises. That's the half you access by "going up the stairs". It seems that staircases present an unacceptable risk to 15 year olds.
She has seen staircases before, in her school and at home (which she uses umpteen times a day). But no - according to this risk assessment, stairs represent a clear and present danger. Use verboten.
I can't help but feel that someone, somewhere has misinterpreted health and safety guidance on this issue.
I can understand wanting to protect people. But what are we protected from in this case? If we never tried going up the stairs we'd never learn how to climb them and we'd never see what was at the top.
Think about this in the context of marketing your business. I've written elsewhere in this blog about people needing to be familiar with failure - it's how you learn.
If the stairs represent the marketing activities you really should be doing in order to improve the sales leads, conversions and revenues to your business - are you averse to taking the risk of trying them out? What's stopping you? What's preventing you from trying?
Are you scared of wasting a budget? Are you scared of wasting time? Are you scared of rejection?
If you don't expose yourself to these risks, you won't learn how to improve what you do.
What's holding you back from doing the marketing work you really need to do?
No sane person will take a silly risk which could end up in disaster. Taking ill-considered risks is a job for the stupid, egotistical (I'm thinking bankers here) or anyone who doesn't have enough understanding of "self preservation".
There are two types of risk: Risks to be avoided (those with a serious impact) and those which you can learn from. Obviously, the former type of risk means that it's likely you won't last long enough to learn from it.
...stick with me, I'm coming to the marketing lesson shortly...
Today's post has been promted by my teenage daughters work placement from school. This is a learning experience for 15 year old kids in real workplaces. We are particularly fortunate that she has found a workplace where the owners are very nice and helpful. Especially bearing in mind that they had to go through a risk assessment organised by the Council Education Department.
The upshot of this "risk assessment" is that my daughter is not allowed to access half of the premises. That's the half you access by "going up the stairs". It seems that staircases present an unacceptable risk to 15 year olds.
She has seen staircases before, in her school and at home (which she uses umpteen times a day). But no - according to this risk assessment, stairs represent a clear and present danger. Use verboten.
I can't help but feel that someone, somewhere has misinterpreted health and safety guidance on this issue.
I can understand wanting to protect people. But what are we protected from in this case? If we never tried going up the stairs we'd never learn how to climb them and we'd never see what was at the top.
Think about this in the context of marketing your business. I've written elsewhere in this blog about people needing to be familiar with failure - it's how you learn.
If the stairs represent the marketing activities you really should be doing in order to improve the sales leads, conversions and revenues to your business - are you averse to taking the risk of trying them out? What's stopping you? What's preventing you from trying?
Are you scared of wasting a budget? Are you scared of wasting time? Are you scared of rejection?
If you don't expose yourself to these risks, you won't learn how to improve what you do.
What's holding you back from doing the marketing work you really need to do?
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