What My Engineering Professor Taught Me Of Life, Business And Marketing

Telecommute. Kill a career?

In engineering school my professor, Dr. Soukup, was a stoic, military-general kind of guy. Every week he would give us homework. One week his assignment was especially maddening.

Turns out it was impossible to solve with 'textbook' formulas. You had to use a special computer program to solve it.

But he never said anything about that. It took consultations with several other students and another professor to solve. So when I finally showed up for class, homework in hand, I was mad.

I chewed him out in front of everybody. "You gave us this problem and didn't tell us ANYTHING about how to solve it. Not a single clue. We were whistling dixie in the dark and had to waste a bunch of OTHER peoples' time just to figure this out."

An eruption of chuckles from the other students. (Most people wouldn't have the guts to challenge Dr. Soukup publicly in class. He was the department chairman and had a well-earned hard-ass reputation.)

I was so brave.

I felt so vindicated.

Dr. Soukup was undisturbed by my angst. I only got an icy stare. He felt no moral obligation to pave the way for our homework success and I received no sympathy.

'What's the matter with this guy anyway? Doesn't he know when you grade students for an assignment you're supposed to tell them how to solve the problem first?'How naive.

Pretty much every problem I've ever had to solve in business has been like Dr. Soukup's class.

There's something you've gotta figure out; somewhere there is a way to figure it out. The person who's asked you to figure it out did not hand out handy-dandy formulas in advance.

There's a deadline.

It may require consultation with other students and professors to solve.

May require a special computer program you don't know about.

The problem may in fact be unsolvable and requires an entirely different approach.

That's life in the jungle, my friend.

Which is why traditionally educated people often struggle mightily in the entrepreneurial world. They expect exact answers and well-defined assignments, but what they get is Dr. Soukup.

Which is also why many of the most successful entrepreneurs I know never went to college.

If Dr. Soukup had said, "Here's an assignment and it's going to take a special trick to solve this problem but I'm not going to tell you what it is" I would have taken that as a summons to action and probably dug into it with verve. I enjoy a challenge and I know you do too

So my message to you today is:

Whatever marketing problem you're trying to solve today requires a trick or some kind of special touch. It may very well be a 'textbook' answer or formula. Might not be all that exotic or complicated. But... nobody is handing you a book before the test.

The good news is: Business is an OPEN BOOK test where nobody tells you which book you might happen to need today.

All you know is: The more things you've seen and the more books you have at your fingertips, the faster you can solve the problem, run through the maze, ring the bell and get the cheese.

Oh, and one more thing: Listen up. Hearken unto me, for what I sayeth to you today mattereth.

In school, homework is never optional, is it? You do it. You turn it in. It gets graded. If you don't, you fail. No serious student considers homework assignments to be optional.

Yet in the entrepreneurial world I'm amazed at how many homework assignments I give out, that people somehow think are optional.

Where did they ever get that idea?

If I tell you your homework assignment is to split test four different ads by next Friday, then doggonit, split test your ads.

If the homework assignment is to put live chat on your site and talk to 20 visitors before next week... then get chattin'!

If the homework assignment is to call 20 customers on the phone and do a survey, then... start dialin'!

Why do people blindly follow professors for years - or obediently work as a cubicle drone for some soulless insurance conglomerate - yet will not do the requisite assignments for their own success?

If you've ever asked yourself that same question, let me give you a new way to think about it.

In the Dilbert Cube and the classroom, they give you 100% of the answers in advance and they expect you to do 100% of what they tell you to do. If you do it correctly, you get a grade of 100%. A-Plus.

You're so special. You're the Star Estudiante! Everyone rise and give a hand for Donla !

In the entrepreneurial world, you get maybe 30% of the answers in advance. And because you assume from the outset that only one third of the things you try are going to work, you need to do 300% of what you're told to do.

Oh yeah, and nobody's gonna clap for you either. (Plus Anna Quindlen may shame you for not voting for the tax increase 'cuz all those shiftless drones need you to fund their medical care.)

But remember: It only has to work once. If it does, you make your million dollars.

So just multiply everything times three and don't expect more than one third of the answers to be handed to you on a silver platter. Then, having a super-successful business will seem easy compared to getting an MBA. Certainly a lot easier than law school or med school.

Deal?

Get to it.

[Via - Perry Marshall]

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