The penalty for deviating is death

For years, I was puzzled by the word strategy.

“What is strategy, what does that word even mean?” I figured it was a word people used mainly when they wanted to sound smart.

Then, a month or two ago, Alper and I interviewed corporate strategy consultant Alex Smith on the podcast.

Alex mentioned a quote from Dolly Parton: “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” He said that quote tells you everything you need to know about strategy.

(below, click the podcast short to hear Alex dive into this quote a bit more)

I’ve been noodling on that quote for over a month now. And then I read this article from Smart Bear…

https://longform.asmartbear.com/never-compete-on-price

…and I thought, “If those companies did anything else, they would be dead in 5 years.”

And then the word strategy fell into place for me:

“Strategy is being who you already are. The penalty for deviating from that line is death.”

Related Posts

LinkedIn bites

My clients, whether they are selling a tangible product or a consulting service or simply themselves, are generally looking to sell something abroad. And one of the most common ways for them to go about it is to post stuff and message people on LinkedIn. They try the...

The emptiness of value

The word "value" is empty. Or, more precisely, the word "value" is not empty, it is vague, and it should therefore be on our chopping blocks. Instead of saying "provide value," for example, say "do something people will pay for." Why? Include the phrase "provide...

Wes Wheless

Recently we interviewed a repeat guest on the podcast, Wes Wheless. I took away many things from that interview, but the main one is this: Who you talk to is probably the most critically important part of a presention. You see, we presentation trainers hit on one...