One of my favourite business quotes of all time is from marketing Polymath Al Reis who was co-author of the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (A must read for all entrepreneurs) and it is this:
‘An office is a very dangerous place to watch the world from”
This is really a key for anyone no matter what our life is. Decisions from the desk are rarely as insightful as decisions made from the filed. For all the reasons we are aware of such as message dilution , the grape vine et al.
I have been witnessing this first hand as I have invested the past few weeks out on the road visiting my business customers for www.rentoid.com. Put simply I’ve learnt more in the past few weeks than I have in the past few months. Incredible insights as deep and wide as web usability to asset management.
I’ll I can say to startups is this. Get out there and press the flesh and make sure you are not ‘Office Blind’.
have you seen startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com or read 4 steps to the epiphany? i think you’d like em!
“A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.”
This is John Le Carre, it’s on page 84 of “The Honourable Schoolboy” published in 1977. I researched this for my March 2009 “Quotes for Entrepreneurs” http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2009/03/31/quotes-for-entrepreneurs-march-2009/
Seems as though Al Ries Stole that one as it is also in his book! I think we can all agree on how true it is.
Thanks for the added insight Sean.
Steve.