Tearing Down Doesn’t Build Up
Photo Credit - Dominics Pics - Flickr
Picture a block of row houses. Each house is exactly the same. Two houses are destroyed on either side of another house. Suddenly, the remaining home stands out. It is separated, on it’s own…unique. Or is it? It’s still the exact same house. Nothing has changed.
But, it’s tempting isn’t it? Proving a point by disproving another. Building an argument by tearing down another. Attempting to make myself look better by making someone else look worse. Leading a ‘movement’ based on what another movement is doing wrong (think “primaries”). Pitching an idea based on how bad all the other related ideas are.
It doesn’t work. It’s unsustainable. You still end up with the same old house, and all your energy was spent creating rubble.
People follow someone who stands for something. People follow when they’re inspired, when there is a vision to latch on to, when they know their destination.
People don’t follow someone who only stands for the opposite of something. Sure, they may follow for awhile, but it’s unsustainable. Eventually the followers become disillusioned. They get sick of not having a destination, and they get sick of rubble. Not to mention that people just get sick of negativity…of always hearing how wrong everyone/everything else is.
Regardless of your political views, from a marketing perspective Barack Obama managed to be about something, whereas his opponents manged to be about a whole lot of what they weren’t about.
When planning, I find it a worthwhile challenge to force myself to build and pitch ideas by casting a vision, showing a destination, and being about something. If I’m trying to prove something’s worth, I try to do it without disproving something else’s worth. It can be hard, but I believe it makes my ideas much stronger. I believe that if my ideas are good, they should stand on their own two feet.
