MEMORIZE THE PLAYBOOK, THEN BURN IT

My friend Jane calls many of the techniques I use “rogue tactics” because they defy the conventional advertising playbook. But everyone - from solopreneurs to established organizations - respects them because they work.

Entrepreneurs and marketers of established companies alike seek out my aid when “normal” methods of marketing — the kind you see advocated on ten million business blogs (often by people who have no clue) — fall short.

I sometimes call the type of work I do “experimental” marketing as that’s exactly what it is. There’s often no playbook, blog post, or guide I can consult before testing a new strategy. To illustrate this more clearly, I want to share a concept called the “Cynefin Framework.”

The Cynefin Framework is beautiful in its simplicity. It divides different types of labor into four quadrants: simple, complicated, complex, and chaotic.

Simple work is the kind that 80% of us were involved in 200 years ago: manual, unskilled labor such as agriculture or construction.

Complicated work is skilled labor, that requires a certain amount of training and possibly a degree, such as white-collar office work.

Complex work brings us further up the ladder, including jobs such as those in physics and nuclear engineering. This is the first stage that, to some extent, relies upon a highlevel of pioneering thought.

The fourth and final quadrant is chaotic, novel practice. This is the type of work where one is completely on their own because there is no training, guide, manual, professor, or playbook which can prepare a person for the task ahead.

In my mind, this is what growth hacking is all about.

There’s a saying that true entrepreneurs “shoot first, aim later.” The novel practice of “act, sense, respond” within the chaotic fourth of the Cynefin framework gives us a clue as to why this is the case.

The entrepreneurial landscape of today is one of revolutions; small and large. It is chaos. Chaos is both a ladder for some and a pit for others. Those who discover smarter ways of doing things than their counterparts reap what they sow. The seekers, the innovators, create the biggest impact and reap the greatest rewards.

Because chaotic work is uncomfortable, it provides the greatest potential for growth and advancement. When you engage in the kind of experimental work that others are unwilling to do, you already put yourself at a big advantage.

This type of learning comes from doing, testing, and analyzing results. It is not the type of education that comes from reading a book. Books — such as this one — can start you on the path, but the onus is on you to act and continue beyond where the books stop. You must exceed and surpass them.

The Prussian generals — grizzled old men over the age of 60 — had memorized each line from the military playbook; they knew every precise detail of every formation. But it was the outsider Napoleon who was discovering novel and innovative ways of maneuvering his troops.

To his Prussian adversaries, the French armies’ movements seemed chaotic and undisciplined, as they broke with all of the conventional rules.

Because Napoleon and Painless Parker both operated within the fourth quadrant of the Cynefin framework (which their adversaries were unwilling to do), they created huge advantages that competitors could not match.

In school we were led to believe that straight A’s — 100% scores — were the ideal to aim for. But academia is theoretical land, the domain of books, rules, and certainty.

In the real, chaotic world I believe this to be true: 85% perfect is perfect. 90% perfect is perfect. 100% and you’ve already failed. If you finish a project or campaign of any sort and didn’t make at least ONE mistake, it means you’ve spend too much time on it.

100% is too impractical to strive for. Moreover, a 100% score leads us into a false sense of security because it implies that there is nothing left to learn (hint: in the real world, there is always more to learn).

Implement quickly. Attack the market hard. Never stop attacking.

A FINAL WARNING -- AND A CHALLENGE

Something that used to be very uncomfortable and difficult — entrepreneurship — is suddenly easier than ever before, and everyone wants to ditch the cubicle to become their own boss. It’s the fashionable thing. It’s also become more comfortable than ever before.

Such is the landscape we find ourselves in today.

Everyone wants to call themselves an entrepreneur, and big communities of entrepreneur support groups have formed as a result. People associate with something because of the identity it gives them. When I first began to tell people I was an author, it felt so incredibly cool.

I was damn proud of myself.

But the identity becomes an end in and of itself, the results an afterthought.

Accordingly, many of these communities are rapidly devolving into self-contained mediocre majorities in and of themselves. And there’s so much information thrown at them that they become hapless consumers for more opportunistic (and often unscrupulous) individuals. There’s too much money in consulting and selling books about how to be an entrepreneur and content about escaping the 9 to 5.

Many among this new class of entrepreneurs rely far too much on stratagems that worked in the past for other people. They take pages out of the same playbook, and fail to innovate. They create landing pages that look identical to one another, craft the same message, follow the exact same process.

But the more people who engage in this type of “me-too” entrepreneurship, the smaller the returns become. You can’t pique anyone’s attention or interest by copying what everyone else is doing.

The Napoleons and the Painless Parkers of the world come along and wipe the floor with those who cling to certainty and convention.

Consider this a warning — and an opportunity.

My best advice is if you find something good, implement it quickly, and see if it is worth scaling. The key is to be consistent and committed to long-term growth, and not merely dip one toe in the water or fall for the “shiny object syndrome.”

People often ask me questions about what type of marketing will work for their business, and rather than make suggestions I fundamentally understand that the secret to success requires a long-term commitment to the discipline of marketing itself. The best way to ensure success is to commit to being an lifelong experimentalist rather than pick out tactics a-la-carte that work for other people.

I can suggest things that have worked well for me, but there’s no guarantee that they will work for anyone else. What will work is committing to the long term, implementing and iterating constantly. Act, sense, and respond.

Question everything — especially your own assumptions. Seek out opposing views. Become a student of life. Only through a collection of viewpoints and ideas can you find what meshes with you. Explore the truth, on your own, as earnestly and as long as you can.

You and I are entrepreneurs, living in the chaotic territory. We must accept that the ground we stand on now could vanish tomorrow.

Should you wish to succeed at marketing (and online entrepreneurship), let go of the need for certainty or perfection. Successes are not final just as failures are not fatal. Instead, test relentlessly. Become a student and true artist to the craft.

Commit to a lifelong pursuit of learning, evolving and growing. And use what you learn in this book (and everywhere else) to push the limits even further.