Nobody Cares

Last week a friend of mine asked me to review his son's resume.  His son is graduating college next month and trying to get a job.  Since I know people in the business his son is interested in, he also thought I might be of some assistance (and I will try).

The resume was by-the-book and well prepared.  But nothing about it jumped off the page.  I tried to communicate to my friend's son that his resume needed to reach out from the page and grab the reader by the throat.

And it occurred to me that what I was really saying to this young man was "NOBODY CARES."  Now I don't mean that in the super harsh way that it may sound.  People do care about each other, of course.  But, in business people only care about what can help them AND that presumes you can even get their attention.

Similarly, when I am speaking to young entrepreneurs who think they have the greatest idea ever I want to remind them that NOBODY CARES.  Invented the better mousetrap?  OK, let's say you have.  Now, how are you going to tell people about it?  Do you have lots and lots of dollars for marketing and PR?  And how are you going to convince cynical consumers that your mousetrap really does what you say it does?  And finally how are you going to get people's attention in the first place?  Given that we are all bombarded with ads and come-on's and solicitations and distractions day in and day out, how in the world are you going to get people to pay attention to you?

That is why I tell young entrepreneurs - or anyone starting a new business or writing a book or running for office or just plain sticking their neck out - NOBODY CARES.  I then go on to say that what I mean is that in order to get people to care, you need to be different and loud and hard working and helpful and entertaining ... and get a little lucky too.

There are no short-cuts today.  All that stuff went the way of the housing boom.  People today are frugal and cautious and wiser than they were just a few years ago.  Today, in order to succeed at whatever you are doing, you need to grab your customer by the lapels, tell them what you do, do it better than anyone else can do it, and then hope they like what you did.   

I'm not sure if this is good or bad - it just is.

NOTE:  The publishers of Randel's book, The Skinny on the Housing Crisis (2009) would like to congratulate him on the selection of this book as "Book of the Year" by an association of 650 journalists writing about housing, business and finance.  The award will be made in Washington, D.C. on June 20.