I Don't Get It!

By Joel Block

There are a lot of things that I don't get, and most of the time, when I don't get something, I tend to stay away from it. I think most of the time, it works the same way for others. We don't understand it; we don't do it. Why would we do it if we don't understand it? On the other hand, maybe it makes a lot of sense to do things whether we understand them or not, at least sometimes.

On the Internet, for those of us who are sellers and marketers, there are many different kinds of technologies and platforms that are being released every single day. Most of them take time for us to learn, understand and become comfortable with, and until you take that time and make that investment, you'll never become comfortable with whatever the new platforms are. Of course, you certainly can't get involved in every new platform that's released because too many of them come out day by day.

For example, in the last year or two, look at the proliferation of Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and others. Many years ago, I dabbled in LinkedIn. I created a very small database and then forgot about the website for a couple of years. When I came back to it (a specific situation had provoked me to take another look at the service), I realized that it was something that was extremely powerful and that I needed to be more involved with it.

I started working it hard and as you may know, I'm now a very active participant in the LinkedIn community. I believe in it tremendously. It now has over 25M business users and of all of those people, I'm ranked number 180 in the world in terms of having the most contacts in my database.

That gives me great access to other professionals.

The most important point is that even though I didn't totally understand how I would use it back when I began using it, the lens became clear over time. And as it became clearer and I became more comfortable and proficient with the technology, it became more helpful and more beneficial to me in my life and my career.

Now, we can't do this every single time when we see something that we don't understand. There are certain technologies and platforms that have a pretty good chance at being significant and when thought leaders start suggesting that you get involved in a platform, it's a pretty good idea to do it whether you thoroughly understand it or not. You don't want to get to the point where you understand something so completely that you're an expert before you actually take the dive. The reason for that is it would take so much energy to become an expert, that you'll never become one before you ever get started.

I did that with Facebook and MySpace. I didn't totally understand them, but I immediately hired some people to help once I heard thought leaders around me talking about the significance of these platforms. A new one has just emerged in the last several months - it's called Twitter. I've been told about it and it took me a little bit of time to jump in. But as I've jumped in, I've started to understand the tremendous power of these platforms. If you join Twitter, I recommend that you connect yourself to me.

So, as you are working hard every day to build your company, or as you're building your career, sometimes when a thought leader tells you to get involved in something, it's a good idea to do it, whether you thoroughly understand it or not. There's a very good chance that people who follow trends and follow technologies and platforms are seeing something powerful in the technology and that is why they recommend that you get involved too. You might want to get on the leading edge so that you can get out in front of the crowd - because once you finally understand it, you'll then have a significant base of contacts or other assets that you can leverage while other people are just waking up and getting started.

About Joel G. Block

Often dubbed a "Growth Architect" by his clients, Joel Block advises companies on explosive growth strategies by driving revenue and sales. Well known in the capital markets, Joel is a successful entrepreneur, speaker and advisor. To bring Joel into your company, please visit www.joelblock.com or www.growth-logic.com.