That was the headline.
Who was the picture above the headline? Who is having these epic dunk fails? LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ja Morant.
Moral of the story…if you dunk more than anyone else and are at the top of the game you’re going to have some noteworthy duds.
I bet when they write the headline ‘Dunks of the Year’ they’ll use the same picture.
There’s a lot of ads like this these days.
The best pants in the world.
The most comfortable office chair ever.
The ultimate athletic socks.
The only ski mask you need.
The last sweater you’ll ever buy.
Why advertise like this?
There is a desire for permanence. Or rather…we have an awareness of impermanence and it bothers us and these companies are offering the answer for what’s bothering us.
We’ve gotten really good being intentional about what we turn on in the background.
Whether it’s a podcast or music or tv. We often put it on simply to keep us company…as an accessory rather than the principal.
We’re not focused on it but we turned it on on purpose. And that intentional act, to get to choose the noise that fills our air, makes us feel good. The noise is ours.
Because the silence might be too much. Too open ended. Out of control. Threatening. Anything or any voice (in our heads) could come and fill it at any moment. Silence is terrifying.
But we easily conquer the silence by hitting another app. So until we actually embrace the silence and deal with what’s there and let it accompany us throughout life, we’ll always need another podcast (or some other noise) to make us feel like we’re still in control.
We see the silence. It’s scary. We fill it. The fear subsides. We feel in control.
And the truly scary part is, there’s always another podcast and more noise if that’s what we want.
If things end up going well you’re going to want to keep going.
But now that you’ve put all that work into making things go well…
You might be tired.
You might be low on cash.
You might not be interested.
You might not be as fulfilled as you thought you’d be.
You might be lonely.
The truth is…a certain degree of all of these things are heading your way as you achieve markers of success in your field. But if you know they’re coming and can prepare for those moments, they won’t confuse or derail or completely hijack your emotions when they hit.
Is it 1 2 3 picture?
3 2 1 picture?
Is three seconds enough time to get ready?
Do you click the button on 1 or after the 1?
Is it going to be several pictures in a row or are there going to be countdowns between each?
Or are you doing a silent count from the beginning?
And what about the jumping picture?
It would be better if everyone everywhere were on the same page but it’s just not important enough to make it happen. If this picture doesn’t work out it’s easy enough to take another and another. And plus, the goal is simply to get a good picture, so who cares about sharing the same countdown practices.
But if you’re in business together, building something together, releasing something together, presenting something together…taking the time to ensure you’re on the same page is worth the time and effort.