Observing our environment is crucial for our survival and prosperity. We may face people who are friendly and nice, but they have a vicious face hidden behind the mask. Our audience tells us what works for us and what does not if we observe them keenly. Our life depends on the people around us, we depend on each other, and everyone has different interests and ideas, therefore, we are not able to converge. To unite your team, you should help them find a cause that is beneficial to everyone, not just a specific person. Understanding your environment and getting the most out of it is an art that you can learn by stepping out of your home and getting involved with the people around you to explore their different interests and pursue your cause.
“MOST PEOPLE THINK FIRST OF WHAT THEY WANT TO EXPRESS OR MAKE, THEN FIND THE AUDIENCE FOR THEIR IDEA. YOU MUST WORK THE OPPOSITE ANGLE, THINKING FIRST OF THE PUBLIC. YOU NEED TO KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON THEIR CHANGING NEEDS, THE TRENDS THAT ARE WASHING THROUGH THEM. BEGINNING WITH THEIR DEMAND, YOU CREATE THE APPROPRIATE SUPPLY. DO NOT BE AFRAID OF PEOPLE’S CRITICISMS—WITHOUT SUCH FEEDBACK YOUR WORK WILL BE TOO PERSONAL AND DELUSIONAL. YOU MUST MAINTAIN AS CLOSE A RELATIONSHIP TO YOUR ENVIRONMENT AS POSSIBLE, GETTING AN INSIDE “FEEL” FOR WHAT IS HAPPENING AROUND YOU. NEVER LOSE TOUCH WITH YOUR BASE.”
Train your eyes:
People who are after power, fame, and wealth train their eyes to read people from the inside out. They know who is emotional, who is strong, who is weak, who is famous, who is wealthy, and who can be his easiest target in his environment. Once we know our environment, we can easily get what we want. All we have to do is step out of home and spend time with people to know them better, their weaknesses, and strengths, and once we know them, we can add them to your group. The worst mistake people make is they get sensitive to people’s comments and are lost in their own thoughts, rather than focusing on what is happening around them. To get power, emotions should be controlled.
“To connect to the environment in this way would mean having to move outside ourselves, train our eyes on people, but so often we prefer to live in our heads, amid our own thoughts and dreams. We strive to make everything in the world familiar and simple. We grow insensitive to people’s differences, to the details that make them individuals.”
A fundamental fearlessness:
People who are conservative live their life according to a set of beliefs and ideas that they have been following for years, and they feel bad when someone goes against their ideas and ways of life. We should be open to new ideas, and we should not get emotional and personal when someone says or does something that is the opposite of what we usually do. In our environment, people of different cultures, religions, castes, and colors live, and if we just cling to a fixed mindset, we miss learning a lot of things that we can learn from others. Be fearless in your attitude to approach others, and keep exploring new things. There is beauty in dynamics and new ideas, and we are afraid to extract the hidden treasures owing to adhering to a specific code of life. It is hard to muster the power and get famous if we are not able to adapt and be flexible.
“Understand: the opposite approach is the way to power in this world. It begins with a fundamental fearlessness—you do not feel afraid or affronted by people who have different ways of thinking or acting.”
Understand your public:
Great musicians, politicians, and developers fail to earn fame and money due to their inability to understand their audience. The key to success in marketing is to know about the environment and its people, what works in India may not work in America, and vice versa. What was popular in the 60s may not be that popular in the 20s. We need to get into the mind of the public and read their psyche. We do work hard, but we are wrapped up in our thoughts.
“The great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky had almost two separate parts to his career: in the first, he was a socialist who interacted mostly with other intellectuals. His novels and stories were relatively successful. But then in 1849 he was sentenced to several years of prison and hard labor in Siberia for ostensibly conspiring against the government. There, he suddenly discovered that he hadn’t known the Russian people at all. In prison he was thrown in among the dregs of society. In the small village where he did his hard labor, he finally mingled with the Russian peasantry that dominated the country. Once he was freed, all of these experiences became deeply embedded in his work, and suddenly his novels resonated far beyond intellectual circles. He understood his public, the mass of Russian people, from the inside, and his work became immensely popular.”
Communicate with them:
We tend to avoid people physically or mentally due to fear of criticism of our ideas and busy routine. The more distance we keep, the more we push them away. It is important to share your ideas with people without fear since your outcome is for your audience, as dearly as we communicate to our public, we occupy a place for ourselves in their hearts as well as minds, and the less scared we get when we face them. Communication is important for growth and understanding, and we need to communicate with people in our environment to know what they lack in life, and if we could provide what they need, they would trust and support us in the future.
“We are social creatures who make things in order to communicate and connect with those around us. Your goal must be to break down the distance between you and your audience, the base of your support in life. Some of this distance is mental—it comes from your ego and the need to feel superior. Some of it is physical—the nature of your business tends to shut you off from the public with layers of bureaucracy.”
Inspire them to action:
There are people in our environment who crave inspirational words. We need to inspire such actions, and they will do the job for us. We need to know their problems, and what they lack in life. All the great politicians know the public’s problems, and they make lofty promises to overcome their problems. They inspire them with words and acts to win their support.
“Malcolm hated that feeling of creeping paternalism. In his mind, people can only help themselves—his role was to inspire them to action, not act in their name.”
References:
- Greene, R. (2010). The 50th law (Vol. 1). Profile Books.