I always love the Academy Awards, and during this year’s show they showed a montage of clips made up of the nominations for film of the year. During this montage, there was a quick grab from a scene in the film Whiplash, where the leading actor JK Simmons said to his student,

“There are no two words in the English language more harmful than Good Job.”
​
When I heard that, it made me think about the words we use in our own minds, the conversations we have with loved ones and workmates and the off handed comments we can tend to throw out as a reflex. So often, good gets in the way of great. We set out to do a good job, yet there is alway someone else who sets out to do an outstanding job. The difference between great and outstanding is not skill-based, it is simply a difference in attitude and desire. From the start, the outstanding person sets a different expectation, a higher standard and hence they see a different result…. not a good job but a great job.
​
Don’t do harm to yourself or others. Choose your words wisely, set a higher expectation for yourself and your business, get your Mojo working and see how the results follow.


“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
~Martin Luther King~

This week’s Editor’s Note is referencing a paragraph by self made billionaire, Charlie Munger. Anybody interested in the investment world will know the name Charlie Munger. He is not only one of the most successful investors of all time but he also shares a lot of wisdom in his writings. Let me throw to Charlie:
​
“I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you. Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day – if you live long enough – most people get what they deserve.”


My question for you this week is what will you read before bed to allow you to be a little wiser before you count the zzz’s? Will you listen to a podcast, read a magazine, an autobiography, a fictional book, a great blog or poetry? You name it, you do it and you will reap the rewards. Given the frantic and busy nature of our lives, most of us are not taking time to learn. To be better tomorrow than you are today you have to learn new information. The brain strives for and loves new. The challenge this week from The Espresso is, tell us what you’re going to read, listen to or take in that will make you a little wiser.

This week Glad Wrap have finally admitted they made a major blunder by moving the blade that cuts the wrap from the bottom of the box to inside the lid. Nationwide outrage from Glad Wrap users has given the company no choice but to ditch the change and go back to the original blade placement, costing the company many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

There are a couple of good learnings from this. Innovation for the sake of innovation just doesn’t work. It has to be a genuine improvement that makes the consumer’s life better before you start to innovate a product like this. Glad Wrap claim that they did extensive research prior to making the change, but research can tell you what you want to hear unless you are truly opening it up, listening and hearing, looking and seeing.
​
So if you’re going to innovate make sure that your customers or clients really want it, will appreciate it and if you do research, it’s important to sit among your target audience and listen to what they say as opposed to just outsourcing as research will tell you whatever you want to hear. This is a great case study for young marketers, brand builders, entrepreneurs or CEO’s that allow marketers to run off with innovations that clearly aren’t in the best interests of your customers, clients or your business.