Reality confronts man with a great many musts

Every enterprise has its own form of currency. 

Key performance indicators. Metrics of success. 

For example, number of clicks, page views, conversion rates, industry awards, channel specific traffic, bounce rate, lead to close ratio, cost per lead, projected return on investment, cost of customer acquisition, customer retention rate, size of gross margin, cash on hand, repeat or renewal business, burn rate, income to expenses ratio, user engagement and number of employees who aren’t actively seeking out employment at strip clubs. 

But lest we forget, reality confronts man with a great many musts. There’s no metrics police that’s going to lock us up if we don’t keep tab on every single unit of measurement in our business. 

It’s all social pressure. Status anxiety. The rabbit hole of comparison we tumble down because we’re obsessing over how our numbers match up against the competition. 

Ellis, the founding father of rational emotive behavior therapy, would call this musterbation. 

He coined the term in the fifties, defining it as the rigid, irrational and unreasonable demands and expectations people make on ourselves. Ellis used the principle to help patients understand that when they tell themselves that something is necessary, that’s the very thing that makes them feel miserable. 

The great many musts with which society confronts. Especially in the world of business. 

But therein lies the rub:

Metrics can be gamed. Impact can’t. 

And so, the goal is to base our version success on the latter. The difference we make, not the digits we accumulate. 

Because nobody can take that form of currency away from us. It’s the love we can never lose. 

Years ago, my company mailing list officially reached pathetic status. Subscribers were hemorrhaging on a weekly basis, open rates were a fraction of the industry average and the number of personal replies and comments that I received could be counted on one hand. 

Ninety bucks a month, well spent. 

The question is, does that metric make my business is failure? Depends on who you ask. According to marketing experts and internet trolls, yes. My business is a failure.

You simply must build your list, darling. Anybody who’s anybody has fifty thousand subscribers. 

Without it, your brand doesn’t exist. 

However, according to my wife, no. My business is a success. Because as the sole bread winner of the household, the work I was doing supported our family, for an entire year, and we lived, happily, in the most expensive city in the country. 

That’s the only metric that matters.

LET ME ASK YA THIS… 

What metrics do you need to put into place to find the love you can never lose?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS… 

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.  

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com

Never the same speech twice. Customized for your audience. Impossible to walk away uninspired.

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