By Michael Chiang
Growing up in the MTV generation, I was influenced by pop-culture and the forever quest for useless knowledge. Like a sponge, I retained as much information as possible. I memorized and researched jingles, movie lines, rock anthems, gossip, world history, future history, astrology (I am a Gemini), video game codes (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A), sports history, names of cities, anything I could get my hands on.
Believe it or not, I found myself disenchanted with school topics. English class was boring. My attention span was zero in AP Government. French made no sense to me, and math was only good for counting cards. Yet mastering the art of spitting out movie lines; that was awesome! I hung out with my geek friends talking about how “Andy” was a dude’s name, but in “The Goonies,” she was kind of hot.
You may be asking yourself why you just spent the last 30 seconds reading the paragraph above. You may think it was a waste of time. If you feel dumber or need better time management skills, continue reading. If you agree that random meaningless information doesn’t waste time, skip to the last paragraph.
People enjoy buying from people they like. What is the easiest way to get a client to like you? Have similar interests and be ever-knowing in random topics. I have closed deals based on discussions about Voltron and the Thundercats. Like intellects gathering in the center of town, I gather at John’s house and draft my top 26 fantasy baseball players. One of my clients asked me to join his league. My personal book of business has just tripled.
So if your child is asking to watch YouTube videos or anything viral, indulge them. Let them be the sponge that I was. I think I turned out alright.
You have completed the Choose Your Own Adventure quest. Please pass Go and collect your $200.00.
Michael Chiang is a senior regional manager at Crescent Solutionsand president of the Los Angeles .NET Developers Group.
Tags: marketing