[ paul isakson ]

Never. Stop. Learning.

view video on ESPN

"A-Rod is not a know-it-all by any stretch of the imagination. He wants... Even though he's 32 years old and he's gonna be the home run king, he still wants to learn." - Pete Rose

Alex Rodriguez is arguably the best player in the game of baseball today. Many believe he'll own the all-time home run record before he's through. How has he come this far and why is he likely to continue? He never stops trying to learn and improve.

I know it goes without saying, but it's another reminder that to be the best at something, you have to be tirelessly committed to it. Always looking to improve, learn and grow.

A couple favorite quotes from this:

"In many ways what I've learned from him [Pete Rose] is that greatness is simple. You don't always try to over complicate it. See it, and hit it hard somewhere. Just take every at-bat as if it's your last one." - Alex Rodriguez

"He's the world's all-time leading hitter. I mean, it's kind of like, if you're a writer, why wouldn't you want to talk to Ernest Hemingway? You know? If you're a painter, Picasso. Baseball ... Pete Rose. That's just what it comes down to." - Alex Rodriguez

This last one, I especially like. Whatever industry you're in, there is a ton of opportunity to learn from current and past greats. Through social media, you can access the minds of many of today's top thinkers and doers in their respective fields almost instantly. You can also pick up books, articles and interviews from many who don't participate in social media or are no longer with us to participate.

Anyway, like I said above, I probably didn't need to say all of this, but since I typed it up already... go learn something.

For those interested in reading more on A-Rod & Pete's relationship, the ESPN eTicket article is here.

Learning From Nature

This one has been bouncing around inside the cranium for a while now. Seeing this video last week and flagging it in my Tumblr with a note has inspired me to get it out. It's probably nothing new/that hasn't been said by others elsewhere most likely, but anyway...

Call it natural adaptation. Call it evolution. Call it design by God. Call it whatever you like.

I've been seeing a lot lately that makes me believe we have not even scratched the surface on what we can learn by observing how things work in our natural surroundings and applying those learnings to solving some of our most challenging problems.

I know there are scientists and engineers who do this for a living, but I don't know that enough of us outside of those fields look to these things to help us solve the challenges we are trying to address.

A particular example of this is when it comes to marketing/marketers and pretending brands are "people." We use things like brand personas, brand personalities, brand voices, blah, blah, blah, to try and make the brand more interesting and desirable.

We do this because this is what we believe will help people form an "emotional connection" with the brand. But then when it comes time to introduce this "person" to the world, we often make them the most annoying person we know.

They interrupt people. They talk and never listen. They yell. They demand to be the center of attention. They take way more than they give. They only engage us when they want something. It's all about them.

Who really likes this kind of person and wants to make them a bigger part of their life? Not many people I know. Not me.

So is it any wonder that advertising is in the state it's in? How in the world do we ever expect anyone to develop a true "emotional connection" to a brand when this is what they do to the people they're supposed to "connect" with?

If we really want brands to have emotional value to people, we need to model their actions after how people really form emotional connections with each other. We need to look at how people become emotionally attached to art, music, film, sports stars, etc.

I think we're doing things that could get us there. As an industry, we're bringing more and more ethographic methodologies and cultural anthropology practices into our companies and research models. Maybe we should open up the context of this research beyond peoples' engagements with brands and look at the bigger picture of their lives and relationships.

I suppose it all depends on the company/brand we're doing the research for as to if this is relevant, but maybe not. Maybe by just observing people and understanding why they do what they do we'll find better ways to help our clients be more useful.

Anything we can do to stop having our brands act like Gilbert Gottfried and start acting more like Oprah Winfrey is a good thing, I think...

IDK. JTOL...

Loathing Math = A Career in Advertising

In looking through the set of sketchnotes Mike Rohde took at SXSWi this year, I came across this one (pink stars added by me using Skitch). The statement from Mr. Coudal is exactly why I ended up in advertising.

Upon graduating from high school, I attended Colorado School of Mines* on a baseball scholarship. It was my experience there, bouncing around various majors and really not enjoying any of the advanced math and science classes I had to take, that I realized I wanted to work in advertising. So I transferred and ended up getting a degree in marketing, which led to my first job as an intern at an ad agency.

Anyway, wanted to share a bit about how I ended up in this crazy business but more so, call out these great notes from Mike.

* This was mostly because it was the best education opportunity playing baseball presented me and at the ripe age of 18, I wasn't sure what I really wanted to do with my life other than play baseball at that point. It was also because the baseball coach told me I could major in Environmental Science in my second year because it was on its way to becoming a major (then just a minor). It wasn't.