I was talking to a very successful friend of mine last night about entrepreneurship, marketing, and life.
He is the guy I talk about in my blog entry “A Tale of Two Completely Different Friends” (the positive one, obviously).
I never fail to walk away from one of our talks with at least a handful of great ideas and fresh perspectives on being successful.
The interesting thing is, my buddy is in one of the most cutthroat industries in the world: Hollywood. Yet, he is one of the most upbeat and genuinely cheerful people I have ever met.
And despite hardship after hardship, he dragged himself up from being a nobody in the business more than a decade ago, to currently partnering with huge movie industry tycoons, producing major feature films, and becoming a major player in the biz.
In an industry that is famous for “You scratch my back and I’ll stab you in yours,” how was he able to survive and thrive?
He gave me a gem of a metaphor over dinner last night that I’ll share with you now.
He told me, “James, the way I always want to be perceived by my partners and clients is… if they’re digging for gold, I want to be the one selling them the mining equipment.”
How true that is in our world.
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE is digging for gold in our space.
And “gold” isn’t necessarily a symbol for money here.
People want things - and want to accomplish things.
Sometimes the fulfillment of helping people, of solving a problem in someone’s life, or just being recognized for an accomplishment, is gold to some people.
If someone is mining for her personal gold, how are you perceived when you show up, and all you want to do is help them get to it as quickly as possible?
That’s right, you will be welcomed with open arms.
Compare this with someone who is trying to sell them ANYTHING not related to achieving their most deep seeded dream or wish… they become what Dan Kennedy calls an “unwelcome pest.”
Understand: Everyone dreams of striking gold.
And it always seems JUST out of reach.
If YOU can be the one to give your prospects the tools to uncover their personal gold mine… THAT’s positioning.
-James D. Lee
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