A boring business is a business ignored.

Meet Bill Bored.

Bill didn’t mind going to work. It was the eight-hour wait to go home that was killing him. He got a wild hair one day and he just up and quit. He figured he might as well go into business for himself. The worst thing that could happen was that he might have to dig out his resume again.

Everyone would understand if he didn’t have money for fancy cards right away. He chose the red ink. He knew that would be good. (Remember the red power tie thing?) Tagline? “Quality Work, Dependable Service” would do. And he would use those nice little bullet points. He did not want to be troubled with business plans or “target markets” just yet. He would do that later. It is all just a bunch of hoopla anyway. He had enough to do just keeping up with spreadsheets and sales and production. It is so much easier to work without vision. Everything is so much easier when you are not answering some big hairy question like, “What on earth am I put on earth to do?”

Bill accomplished what he set out to do. He created his own job. The problem is, until you have been gripped by a great compelling that is larger than yourself, it is just another job. It may be your office and your rules. But without an overarching purpose, it is just another work station with a nice new stapler and neon post it notes. In other words, it is just another great big yawn.

Are you taking your business seriously? Or just spinning in your new chair? Every new business is filled with opportunity. With great opportunity comes great privilege. With great privilege comes great responsibility. You have something of value to give the world. Until you do, we are all losing out. Beethoven says, “To play a wrong note is insignificant. To play without passion is inexcusable”.

Come on. We are all waiting. It is either yawn or yawp.

“Sound your barbaric Yawp over the rooftops of the world”. Walt Whitman

In the 26 years that we have been helping small companies with their marketing and advertising, we have seen almost every kind of difficulty one can imagine. Throughout this month, we are sharing some of the most common problems using fictitious characters in a humorous way. While all of the details in these stories are true, the names have been changed, to protect the guilty. Should any of the stories sound familiar, it is our desire that they would help steer you around some pitfalls. Stay tuned for more Complex Characters of Capitalism.