The National Cancer Institute in Maryland recently analyzed data from three major US health studies launched in the ’90s that gathered data on people’s daily multivitamin use and discovered that people who took daily multivitamins had a 4% higher mortality rate than those who didn’t.
Well, ain’t that a bitch.
Reminds me of a great scene from one of my favorite movies, Grumpy Old Men, where Grandpa Gustafson tells his son that, at 95 years old, he never exercised a day in his life, smokes cigarettes for breakfast, eats bacon all day and drinks his dinner – and according to “all of those flat-bellied experts,” he shoulda took a dirt nap 30 years ago, but he’s still here and they keep dying.
So, what’s my point?
Nearly EVERY “shortcut” to a meaningful and difficult-to-achieve goal is fatal to that goal. When people are told a food is “fat-free” or “sugar-free,” they tend to eat MORE of it, thereby negating the upside of it having fewer calories. Atkins’s “no carbs” diet was another easy diet for people to follow – just don’t eat carbs. But people stuffed their piehole with meat, cheese, bacon, sausage, eggs and other high-fat foods, which led to some weight loss initially, but also kidney problems, dehydration, constipation and fatigue, not to mention an overall health decline from not eating more vegetables and fruit, eating an increase in processed meat and a vitamin deficiency. The latest quick fix, Ozempic, and similar drugs designed to help people lose weight rapidly, are also creating massive health problems, one of which is death. Doesn’t anyone remember Fen-Phen in the ’90s?
In marketing, everyone’s trying to figure out the easy button to get more clients in the door instead of just putting in the work.
Right now, the latest easy button is using AI to make telemarketing calls to book appointments. I’m cautiously optimistic – and we are testing it on ourselves and will discuss the results at our upcoming MSP Roadshow event… But if I had to bet, this will end up going sideways in some way, whether it’s deemed illegal to make telemarketing calls with an AI bot or it simply won’t work. We’ll see. What makes me cautious is the fact it’s seen as a cheap, easy button to marketing, and THAT is my red flag. The reason I’m still pursuing it is because we should always test new things, and AI has proven to be extremely useful in some aspects of marketing (again, more about this at our Roadshow), but the phone call piece is one I’m still skeptical of.
That’s why I’m TESTING it while simultaneously running a team of SDRs the “old-fashioned” way. I won’t abandon what I know works for the promise of an easy button.
The next time you’re tempted to take a shortcut to abdicate your responsibility of leadership, keep in mind there’s not a single successful CEO who got to where they are with easy buttons, quick fixes and “hacks,” so the more time you waste on these things instead of just doing the work, the longer you delay actual progress.
Second point: experts sound just as convincing and certain when they’re WRONG as when they’re right. There was a time when “experts” believed that a lobotomy, which was done by hammering an icepick through the person’s eye socket to sever the limbic system, was a quick and easy fix for depression, anxiety and sleeplessness. The guy who invented the procedure was more of a showman like P. T. Barnum than he was a doctor, traveling the country like an evangelist selling his “miracle cure,” entertaining crowds by doing two lobotomies at a time, switching hands to showcase his ambidextrous abilities and the speed and ease of the procedure.
Madoff was able to scam more than 4,800 people out of $65 BILLION over the course of 17 years because of his “expert” status AND the “easy button” shortcut he was promising of outsized gains. (See a trend here?)
I’ll leave you with a quote from Arnold’s newish book, Be Useful. The next time you’re tempted to fall for an expert peddling an easy button, read this twice, slap yourself in the face and get to WORK.
“If there’s one unavoidable truth in this world, it is that there is no substitute for putting in the work. There is no shortcut or growth hack or magic pill that can get you around the hard work of doing your job well, of winning at something you care about or of making your dreams come true. People have tried to cut corners and skip steps in this process for as long as hard work has been hard. Eventually, those people either fall behind or get left in the dust. Because working your ass off is the only thing that works 100% of the time for 100% of the things worth achieving. My entire life has been shaped by that single ideal.”
– Arnold Schwarzenegger, Be Useful
Ready to stop chasing shiny objects and start making real progress? Join us at the MSP Marketing Roadshow to learn how to attract high-value clients and leverage the power of AI in your marketing strategy. Don’t miss out on this game-changing opportunity.
