The Most Effective Way To Deal With Competitors

The legal team tells me I need to make it clear I am not an advocate of feeding competitors to sharks, lions, tigers or rampaging baboons.

They also tell me I can’t try to convince you that we got the idea from watching the series finale of Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos or Oz. Nor are we allowed to suggest that missing competitors fell victim to the smoke monster on Lost or magically ended up on some island no one can find.

Fact is the crack attorneys on my legal team say I need to tell the most effective way to deal with competitors is to simply be better than them. That is the sort of quality advice that makes you feel not just good but great because any time you consult counsel you want to know it was worth the $873 per hour you just paid.

I suppose that makes as good a segue as any to say that it is another Saturday night and I am a cranky somebody.

Don’t Cry Sam Cooke

That crack legal team would probably recommend I not quote Sam Cooke’s music unless I was willing to pay for the rights. If they did I’d suggest they stop charging me $873 per hour so that I would have enough cash to cover the cost but something tells me they aren’t likely to give up their piece of the pie.

My guess is if I told them this post is going to demonstrate how I outwork and outperform my competition they might ask me to explain how that works.

I’d probably make some sort of backhanded remark about how if I made the explanation too simple they would never understand it and that I need to complicate things so that I can help ensure they’ll spend more time in my office. It is about billing as many hours as possible baby.

The thing is I really am doing this because I want to be better than the competition. One of the reasons why you’ll see me at the computer on a Saturday night is because writing is a skill and you don’t get better unless you practice. Talent only takes you so far, hard work takes you the rest of the way.

And maybe I’d throw in some comments about the challenges that come with parenting, especially when you are trying to help your middle schooler navigate the challenges of puberty, 8th grade, injuries and how to make tough decisions.

The trick is trying to find a way to weave these words in so that people continue reading.  Ya know, it is all about educating and or entertaining the reader.

About That Boardwalk Empire Series Finale

Don’t know how many of you have been watching Boardwalk Empire but I am concerned about it. I have watched the entire series and overall I have found it to be very entertaining but this last season hasn’t been real impressive.

There have been some good episodes but at times it has felt like they have been trying too hard to to do too much. Sort of like they knew the end was coming and decided they wanted to include as much background material about the characters as they could possibly stuff in.

Maybe it is just my perception but if the writers had read that post about the hardest part of blogging and then sat down to talk with me we might have avoided this problem.

Although if I had to pick a series finale that I wonder about I’d pick Sons of Anarchy as one that has me wondering if it is going to live up to expectations or fall short.

If you are among the regular readers you know I watch television and movies for personal and professional reasons. It is not because I am an aspiring screenwriter or producer but because as a professional communicator you can learn a lot about storytelling from movies and television.

I watch hoping to imitate what they do well and avoid what they do poorly.

Come to think of it I’d call that an effective way of handling competitors and it is a lot easier than trying to find a tank large enough to hold a pet Great White, not to mention a lot cheaper.

What do you think?