Alexander Graham Bell didn’t want to go to the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.
His fiancée Mabel, though, said she wouldn’t marry him unless he did.
But when he arrived and set up his exhibit, few people noticed, or cared. And he almost left before anyone had the chance to.
See, the judges were going to stop judging for the day right before getting to Bell’s exhibit. And if they had, he would have packed up and headed home that night.
Through sheer luck, though, the Emperor of Brazil happened to be there, and happened to recognize Bell from a previous encounter.
And he insisted that his party find out what Bell was doing at the exhibit. So they set up a demonstration.
From Charlotte Gray’s biography of Bell:
“A storm of emotions crossed the Brazilian emperor’s face—uncertainty, amazement, elation. Lifting his head from the receiver (a small cylindrical device with a wooden base that rested on a table), he gave Willie a huge grin and said, ‘This thing speaks!’”
If Dom Pedro had been somewhere else on the planet or in the room at that time, what would have happened to Bell, his telephone, and history?
I’m not saying that “networking always works” and you should go to every event you’re invited to.
What I’m saying is that had Bell not been there luck wouldn’t have had its chance to work.
I can put myself in his shoes, right before the big moment. Can’t you? That feeling of not being noticed, of nobody caring. Of not mattering, despite your hard work and rip-your-heart-out emotional investment.
A few years ago, I worked on a project with an outside expert partner that went... fine. That it wasn’t an outright, undeniable success crushed me, and I wrote off that partner as never wanting to work with me again.
I told myself I didn’t want to waste their time, or mine. But what I really felt was, “I don’t want to feel hurt like this again.”
When we write off marketing tactics, like networking, posting on social, writing a newsletter, or even advertising, we’re often trying to protect ourselves.
Not just from wasting money or time, but from feeling hurt from being ignored.
We’re protecting ourselves from the reality that we don’t control results, only attempts.
But protecting ourselves from marketing disappointment shields us from marketing luck, chance, randomness.
Which is the stuff marketing success is often made of.
That partner came back, by the way, years later, and we talked about working together again. It turns out they thought the previous project went great, so all that time I spent not talking to them was the real waste.
And so I’m wondering about the marketing attempts you’ve written off as unworking or unworkable. How many times you’ve gotten in your car after a networking event and said, “Never again.”
Or how many times you’ve poured your heart into a piece of content, had it flop, and said, “I’m done with this.”
Mabel pushed Alec to go to the exhibition, not because she knew it would be a success but because she knew it could be.
So tell me this:
The marketing you’ve given up on... Can it never work, or did it just not work?
If it can work, it’s worth trying again. Even if it hurts, even if it fails.
Because the only real failure in marketing is giving up.
And sometimes we just need someone to give us a nudge to get out the door and try again.
Nudge.
Kelford Inc. is the marketing team that’s never at a loss for words. If you’re struggling with what to say and where to say it to attract ideal clients, we’ll show you the way.