july

As the years have passed I’ve come to realize the ultimate importance of marketing. Of attention, and of the ability to get attention when it’s needed. It, I’m beginning to believe, is actually the only thing of importance.

I write code and sometimes stories. jakeacasey.com

In “The Goal”, the factory runs on dependent events. A widget must first have one thing done to it, and then another thing done to it, and then it’s finished and it can be shipped. Ta-da, we’ve added value to the world and achieved “The Goal”, right?

Let’s take one step back. Widen the view. For the factory to even exist, a few things must be true.

Somebody must know about the widget that the factory produces.
Somebody must perceive the value of the widget.
Somebody must be willing to buy (or trade, or receive) it at the price the factory is selling it at.
These are, in fact, dependent events. And every business has them. Sometimes there’s even departments dedicated to these three steps! It’s called marketing. Imagine having a factory that produces a widget, but you cannot tell anyone about the part. You cannot even distribute the widget for free (read: LTV, word of mouth, referrals).

Without these three things, the factory dies. Or it never exists in the first place.

It’s non-negotiable. There is no way to provide value, without these three events happening. These three steps must be completed before any money can be made.

What if the goal isn’t making money? It’s exactly the same, the steps are just easier. For the value trade to happen, there has to be some type of interaction. Somebody must listen to you, and believe that you can do the thing you’re saying.

Here’s a thought experiment to prove that to you.

Imagine you, an aspiring young botanist, scientist, whatever, have developed the cure to world hunger. It’s a type of plant that doesn’t require water, nutrients, or dirt. You just set it on the ground and bang, infinite food. It’s quite remarkable, really.

Now imagine you’re locked in a cave, and can never tell anyone about what you’ve made. Does it matter? Will the immense value of what you created ever get transferred to the people who need it? Is there even any actual value being created? Perhaps personally you feel proud of the thing you’ve created, that’s of course not unimportant. But certainly not practically.

Nobody will ever eat the food it produces, nobody will benefit from this discovery. It will not save a single life. You will win no awards and achieve no accolades.

As stated in “The Goal”, many systems are comprised of dependent events. A dependent event is, logically, an event that is dependent upon something else. A step in a series of steps that must be completed. To make a peanut butter sandwich, first you must open the jar of peanut butter, then you must open the bread, then you must spread the peanut butter on the bread. If you try to spread the peanut butter before opening the jar, you’re going to have a rough time. And if you’ve forgotten to pick up the knife beforehand, you’ll be in a sticky situation. (Funnily enough this scenario also happens to be a favorite classroom example for explaining how code works, logically and– frustratingly– step-by-step)