Yesterday morning I was making some oatmeal, which should be an unusual event in the summer, but it has been a chilly Spring here in Chicago recently with temps in the '60's. This particular brand of oatmeal included "dinosaur eggs." I was kidding my son: "Hey look, I thought dinosaurs were extinct. How come their eggs are in my breakfast?"
For some reason the word 'extinct' struck me as a funny. It's not a word you use every day. In fact, its a word that typically applies only to dinosaurs. Those dinosaurs have really carved out a unique niche - extinct. Fair or not, that's their label.
People get lost, they go away, but thanks to social media they seem to be coming back from pseudo-extinction. Long lost friends are coming back to life for most of us. This has to be a good thing, right? But what does it mean for your businesses?
Today I was having positive thoughts and when I went to my office, viola - a nice surprise. I was hired for a wonderful speaking opportunity in a beautiful place. How cool! Later that morning, as I was cooking up those dinosaur eggs, I was thinking about another deal that wasn't going so well. To my amazement, I went back to my computer and there was this email: "Sorry Jeff, we're going in another direction." While it wasn't a pleasant surprise, it was very cool too that I had the thought and then it happened! Needless to say I've been very careful with my thoughts lately.
Our tendency is to focus on that good deal and forget about the other - sending it to the land of extinction. But wait a minute? I began to wonder if I could resurrect that lost deal. And if I could do that, what about all of the clients and business deals that have been lost over the years. We reconnect with friends we haven't seen since high school, so why can't we do this with business relationships? Isn't that one of the purposes of social media marketing?
Deepak Chopra is one of the undisputed mind-body experts. I was fortunate to study with him and many other experts and thought leaders for the past 15 years. Deepak once explained to a group of us that if we could muster absolute purity of thinking - we could have a thought and it would become reality. And that statement is proved by the science of quantum mechanics.
While having purity of thought may be impossible unless you are willing to meditate in a cave for the next 40 years, it is possible for very brief moments. Imagine using social media to enhance or at least maintain your business relationships so they don't become extinct, and then every once in a while having that purity of thought that allows for great things to happen. It's really a simple process of "preparedness meeting opportunity."
Its' more than a crazy idea. It's the future of business in a social media world.
