GENERAL PURPOSE: Etsy.com is the world’s leading marketplace for handmade goods. We’re just over three years old and growing by leaps and bounds. We’re looking for a Web Analytics Manager to create…
GENERAL PURPOSE:
Etsy.com is the world’s leading marketplace for handmade goods. We’re just over three years old and growing by leaps and bounds. We’re looking for a Web Analytics Manager to create…
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Web Analytics Manager at Etsy Inc. (New York)
Popularity: 26% [?]
R. R.
R. R. Bowker is the world’s leading source for bibliographic information. The company provides searching, analytical, promotional, and ordering services to publishers, booksellers, libraries, and patr…
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Web Metrics Analyst at R.R. Bowker LLC (New Providence, New Jersey)
Popularity: 20% [?]
[First, a note on the fact that this is a very long, but somewhat useful post. If you must read any on our Blog, please read this one.] Reactionary publishers make the best kind of fools.
[First, a note on the fact that this is a very long, but somewhat useful post. If you must read any on our Blog, please read this one.]
Earlier today, in a post written on Twitter, as a response to ebayandbeyond, I stated some core philosophy of the world, as I see it, as it relates to business. There were three gems which I’m particularly proud to endear, and owe a debt of gratitude (Bill Burke - my Freshman Cross-Country coach at Scranton Prep)…these are:
For the cross-country illiterate, the ‘Kick’ is the last, say, 10th of a mile prior to the finish line. Champions in the sport of distance running are crowned and humbled by these two practices. As part of a district champion team, I can attest to it’s practice and results.
While these are not the direct adages promoted by Coach Burke, and where his interest in my skill as a runner declined with an ACL injury that winter, his philosophy, translated into my own vernacular, has served me well in business over the years and just may be the vitamins the world of small business need when it comes to dealing with the (already in progress though not yet economically determined….) recession we are experiencing. For those of you in need of assurances that the cycle is on the upswing, this probably isn’t your article. For others, who know the value of buckling down for choppy waters and the virtue of being capable of navigating ‘the Perfect Storm’ by instruments…this just might be the kind of writing you need right now.
The first piece is a simple thing to remember when ever you need to overcome anything. Adversity is a wuss. There is no single situation in the history of our planet, to date, which people have not been able to overcome. Be it distance between two points (intra or extra orbital), pitch of a hill with worn-through shoes, or psychological impediment to clear thought…we’ve seen it before. We know ways around, over, through or beyond any obstacle. As it relates to business….someone is buying, their using something to do it. Get out there and find the people spending money and give them reasons to spend it with you. I don’t care what you sell, it could be clothespins for all I care, someone needs them. There’s no time for whining and crying about how tough things are and how great the world was in 1997 when every stock you bought went ten fold overnight. If you’re sales people aren’t up to the task you have two choices…help them find new employment, or let their sad state pollute your optimism while the duty of paying their rent falls on you. I will guarantee any person who digs down deep and finds they are persistent, logical, and able to communicate can find an opportunity everyday to help their business improve.The ability to look inward and find these qualities is not to be taken lightly. Sometimes it takes being honest with yourself and realizing, ‘hey…maybe I need to try something new’. Sometimes the act alone of being honest with oneself is a challenge all its own. When we look down the path to see what inevitable sacrifices must be made by the path we’d face, the path beyond is the one we’d most often prefer.
This brings me to the second credo: Push the Hill. As a transplant to South Florida, I don’t see enough mountains and hills. I was taught, growing up in Northeast that the beauty of mountains, aside from their intrinsic magnitude and colorful seasons, is that they remind us constantly that there are things in the world bigger than us and they present something to overcome. In distance running, this resonates on a very personal level.Scranton Prep is located almost at the flood plane in the Lackawanna River valley. That is to say its nearly, or as close to sea level that you can get in the Appalachian Mountain ranges just north of the Poconos. Our training included running from that low level location through hills and climbs which put us at nearly 1100 feet above flood plane cresting a hill at Lake Scranton. It wasn’t one long road. That would have been easy. It was a series of graded inclines. There was a method to this abuse, however, which meant something in the road race. We’d conditioned ourselves to be able to meet the seemingly non-existent hills of McDade Park or Nay Aug with energy to spare. Our competitors, who often trained on outdoor tracks or in their own vicinities, were ill prepared for our ascent. Coach Burke had trained us to embrace the hill: the adverse angle, the obstacle, the impediment…as our ally to overcome the lack of preparation on the part of our opposition. To this very day, in everything I do, I always know where my competition is not prepared or, which is better, can’t anticipate my being prepared.For an online business, this means using the information you have to make smarter decisions. Commonly this is spoken about in terms of flying a plane without instruments. Now, I’d equate it to flying the plane without instruments…through a hurricane.
With so much, and I mean ridiculous amounts of ways to get and research data about being prepared for events, marketing venues, holidays, public access research data about demographics…everything…why would any business CHOOSE not to know the race they’re running. This brings me back to the comment about reactionary publishers. (You probably had been wondering right?)
Every person who has information which they knowingly distribute for the purpose of getting the attention of the public by parading the sorry state of the world is, in my mind, a complete idiot. It is exactly that type of information I need to know how much brighter the future is for people who don’t subscribe to their mood-mongering. So, while the rest of the industry’s associate level professionals are consuming this garbage, the ambitious and industrious are gearing up for hunting season. I know it. I’m doing it and I’m the last person you want eyeing up your cheese. (This is another permutation of one of my favorite movie quotes: Herman Blume’s quote from the Wes Anderson masterpiece Rushmore - “Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything but they can’t buy backbone. Don’t let them forget it.”
The last piece of my collection is ‘Give Everything You Have to Your Kick’. If you’ve ever run for more than a mile knowing there was more distance ahead, you’ve likely experienced your body’s pacing phenomena. Your breathing and movement settle into a nice even rhythm which actually produces a release of endorphins known as a runner’s high. Its the rhythm and movement which settles into the complacent lazy mind of the runner where the kick comes into play.In order to motivate oneself beyond the runner’s high, it takes a great burst of energy and confidence to overcome weak legs and fatigue. Your body’s immediate response to your thrust is to crumble and quit, and the mind begins to agree with it. When you can muster up every little piece of imagery you need to get past this distress, the build up of everything you worked for in training, preparing, driving, and measuring all radiates at once. Suddenly, you’re exploding past adversaries with abandon and taking home ribbons…or, in our cases, Popsicle sticks with little Sharpie numbers on them.Its been said that a crisis exists to test the mettle of man (or woman). With the right attitude toward adversity and preparation, and the will to achieve, any obstacle can be overcome. Its not always a clear cut case of the world letting us down because it has a way of doing that. Sometimes, its how willing are we to use what tools we have (our information, metrics, analytics, technology, industry) to build the right structure to overcome impediment. The first step is understanding that nothing is impossible to overcome. The next is sizing up our opposition. The last is the willingness to stretch every piece of our being to be able to tell ourselves, when the race is over, we gave it everything we had. You may not always win, but I promise, you will always compete.
In running or business, when everything is said and done…you’ll probably puke and dry heave until your breathing regulates. But your achievement will be far in excess of what it was without this advice. I’m hoping if you made it this far, you’re someone who can also value, with winter coming, the virtues of advice in being deterred from eating yellow snow….
Best Wishes Through Our Little Rough Patch.
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Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Recession
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