I had an epiphany early today…
First, I’ll come clean about my zombie movie fetish. Good, now that’s out of the way… One zombie flick from a few years ago flipped the script on the whole zombie flick scene with it’s far-out approach.
This movie’s comedic vibe was the kick in the balls the genre needed.
And some first-rate comedy that was.
But what was more engaging, was it’s balance between the “serious” and the “funny” parts of the plot.
In fact, one plot point has a hidden business lesson with enough potency to spare you months of sleepless nights and a jar of tears.
Here’s what happened.
The survivors of ye olde zombie apocalypse always lived by one golden rule when they met other survivors:
“ Never share your first name with other survivors. You shall refer to each other by the name of the town you where born in.”
Seems weird?
Well, that’s because it is.
But the reason they did that, was to stop any strong emotional connections and relationships forming in a world where anyone could die at any moment.
They lived in a crapsack world and nobody had the time to grieve a friend lost to the undead masses.
This is just like how you should see your businesses.
There comes a point where you become so emotionally invested in a business, an idea or a project, you can’t see how much of a dead horse it is.
Emotions cloud your judgement.
And sometimes they force you to not see a non starter for what it’s not.
I’ve had to trudge through this many many times.
From:
- The mini start-up I started with some college buds of mine but dropped out of after seeing they where too full of shit to do any work.
- The software start-up I left because we had NO idea what the hell we where working on, and just tossed code everywhere.
None of these projects ever took off.
I poured my heart into each one and dedicated my time and personal resources into each one. Heck I fuckin’ believed in them.
But I knew no matter what I felt about them, the facts remained.
And I had to drop them.
I learned to stop seeing businesses as my “children”, but as my “tools”. I learned to stop weeping for a business zombie and move on.
Cold? Yes.
Heartless? Yes.
Idealistic? No.
Oh, and not forgetting. For top kick ass copy, hit me up here:
Enough for today.
-Jay