Marketing for Rainmakers

There’s an old story about Sherlock Holmes going on a camping trip with Dr. Watson. They pitched their tent, crawled inside, and went to sleep. In the middle of the night Holmes awakened and shouted for Watson to get up. Holmes pointed to the sky and asked Watson what he could deduce. Watson opened his sleepy eyes and nodded in understanding. “I see billions and billions of stars,” he said. “I believe it’s likely that some of these stars have planetary systems. Furthermore, I deduce that there is probably oxygen on some of these planets, and quite possible that life has developed on several of them. Is that what you see as well?”

Holmes shook his head. “No, you idiot. Somebody stole our tent!”

Unfortunately, most of us are more like Watson than Holmes. As a result the obvious is often obfuscated. We try so hard to impress, stick so steadfastly to our private agendas, and allow our biases and filters to color everything we see and hear that we ignore the simple truths that surround us. We over-complicate, over-analyze, and over-prescribe.

Rainmakers take a different approach. They delight in the simple and, even more important to their success, they delight in making the complex simple. That’s their secret — and the only wonder of it is that, as Holmes himself might say, it’s so elementary.

Phil Fragasso — March 3, 2008