The flying man [above] runs an international media company, is a highly sought after keynote speaker, publisher and broadcaster.
Ian Mackaye communicates his mission, vision and values
The pointing man [above] runs a business that has sold millions of units, has invested in and nurtured hundreds of start-ups, and is a mentor to businessmen and women across the world.
By any measure, they are very successful businessmen.
Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye are also punks. Proper, true-blue, hardcore punk princes.
They never leverage synergies, never optimise on-boarding strategies and never maximise vertical channels.
They never publish whitepapers on LinkedIn.
They are successful for many reasons, but mainly because they are never, ever boring.
Conviction, passion, commitment and damn hard work have helped too, as has an understanding that when you’re selling anything, people buy those attributes before they buy your products.
They put their blood, sweat and tears right in front of their audience and demanded their attention. And so they get it.
Your business is not different at all. Your customers will buy you first and your products later. There’s no reason at all why you can’t behave like Rollins & MacKaye even if you think your company is the most boring, technical, B2B business in the whole of Christendom.
Did you choose your accountant because they kept a sweet Sage system or because you trusted the person you met? Did you choose your IT supplier because they wore a gnarly Microsoft polo shirt or because their passion and expertise gave you peace of mind?
MacKaye & Rollins sound like a safe pair of hands don’t they? And they are. Proving that a safe pair of hands don’t have to come with a bland suit, crisp white cuffs and sensible cuff-links.
There’s no excuse for being boring and there’s no need to hide behind a bland armour of clichés, jargon and doing the same as everyone else.
Name your favourite business or business leader and I’ll have a hundred quid on the fact that they’re neither clichéd, nor boring. They’re probably all rebellious renegades, so isn’t it high time you embraced your inner punk?
Are you bored? Are you worried your company is boring? Are you bored, bored, bored, bored with cliched, predictable B2B?
Want to think like a punk and never leverage another synergy in anger again?