Krug: An ode to the Hedgehog in all of us

Ask me which book I would choose if stranded on a desert island, and I probably would ask if I could take a few dozen. But if you played hardball and demanded – for God only knows what reason – that I had to take one book with me on the S.S. Minnow, it’d have to be Jim Collins’ “Good to Great.” And if you are going to be that way, I’ll have to assume that there would be room in my bag for an IPad, that there would be a Wi-Fi signal out there in the middle of the ocean, and I always could download something new from Amazon if I needed an update. And I’d then be sure to mention that nobody in this doomsday scenario said anything about there not being any electricity on the desert island, and in my mind I was thinking Fiji or Tahiti – perhaps a nice bungalow and the right-quick availability of frozen drinks. But for the pure enjoyment of sharpening business acumen, with time-tested and true wisdom and, of course, the tactile delight of holding bound pages in my hand, there’s no question that “G2G” would be coming in my duffle bag on my one-way trip. The logic of the book is too strong and stands up too well, even if some of the companies that seemed destined to be this generation’s Google and Apple are, ahem, completely wiped from the face of the earth. I’ve read more books on business and leadership than I’d care to admit. Frankly, I can’t get enough of them – and I devour them like a fox in a henhouse. But given another proposition like the one that puts me on the desert island, I’d rather be the hedgehog than the fox, hen and henhouses aside. Collins’ hedgehog concept from “Good to Great” actually was adapted from British author Isaiah Berlin’s 1953 essay “The Hedgehog and the Fox,” which was adapted from the Greek poet Archilochus’ poem, “the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." And, as Collins illustrates so very artfully in his book, the hedgehog outsmarts the hungry fox after hours and hours of plotting to eat the spiny little mammal, because the hedgehog is outstanding at one thing – curling into a ball and using his natural protections to save himself from being lunch. From that metaphor, Collins asks the larger three-part question that any entrepreneur should clearly be capable of answering: What are you passionate about? At what can you be the best? And, then, so we aren’t all dreaming of playing semi-professional Whiffle Ball in the Fantasy Land League, What can you actually make a living doing? If you can exit the intersection of those three questions without hitting the curb, you’re onto something. But even if you just use those questions as a guidepost for what it is that you’re currently doing – or perhaps not doing – the value could be tremendous. Start by considering what it is that you truly are most passionate about. What is it that keeps your clock ticking at night? What is it that draws your attention away from the tasks at hand? We’re all passionate about something, but some of us have more difficulty accessing it than others and are too pragmatic to dream. So then, at what could you be tops in the world? Perhaps not you personally, but moreover your company or your work group? Could you somehow create the best website or digital resource for people that someday aspire to be a semi-professional Whiffle Ball player? If so, great! You’ve already identified a niche audience. Now start banging away on the content, get that comprehensive marketing strategy laid out, and the audience and advertisers will follow. That’s a far more lucrative way of going about it than actually taping up a bat and playing. And then what can you actually make a living at doing? Well, if the Kardashians have proved anything, it’s perfectly fine simply to dream. We live in an age when there is a market for virtually anything, provided you can find your people. For each of us, those three questions leave plenty of room for thinking, whether we are staring out the window during a meeting or actually stranded on the proverbial desert island.

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As always, stay classy. Chris Krug is president of the progressive media communications firm No Limit Agency* in Chicago. No Limit is a full-service agency whose practice focuses on strategy, brand management, creative campaigns and delivering unparalleled earned placement in the media. No Limit Agency works with some of the best-known and fastest-growing brands in North America, and that’s not a coincidence. Contact Krug by calling 312-526-3996 or via email at [email protected].