My NONpolitical Political Post
This post was inspired by Dave Armano’s politics post over at Logic+Emotion. First off, if you haven’t been following Logic+Emotion, certainly head on over and subscribe to his RSS feed. Dave is one of the leading experience design gurus in the country and certainly adds his spin of creativity to any subject.
My background in politics is scarce at best. Growing up, I never ran for student government but some of my best friends were heads of the class. Even at a young age, I was around politics but never really got involved. My view on politics has always been influenced by movies and pop culture who illustrate politicians negatively… so why waste my time dealing with negative people?
…That was my view up until recently. I’ll be honest and admit that I didn’t understand the bigger picture of politics because I’ve been ignorant (at least I admit it). The policies that politicians can put in place can be significant and can affect myself, my future children, my friends, and my colleagues. This is not to say that I’m wearing an Obama t-shirt, a Hillary baseball hat, and waving a McCain flag, but it’s certainly getting interesting to me.
Armano lists 10 things he’s learned from politics so far and they sit extremely well with me:
1. Personality is just as important as policy.
2. It’s better to believe in something vs. everything.
3. Words do matter. The delivery of them matters even more.
4. Positive trumps negative.
5. Authenticity is hard to fake but easy to harness.
6. Leadership trumps politics.
7. The internet isn’t a channel, it’s THE channel.
8. Influence is contagious—so is hope.
9. You can’t force people to like you.
10. Anything is possible.
He nails it. I especially like #2, #3, #4, #6, #7
2. It’s better to believe in something vs. everything. I agree 100%. In business, you learn that you cannot be everything to everyone. However, if you concentrate on that one particular “thing,” you’ll be able to get that done correctly and effectively, and will become the go-to person for that particular subject. Believe in something – as most of the time, you won’t believe everything that a candidate is stating… but pick at least one thing and run with it.
3. Words do matter. The delivery of them matters even more. I spend quite a bit of time giving speeches and presentations and I usually have people coming up to me afterwards complimenting me on the presentation. This is about 180 degrees from where I was about 18 years ago (wow, scary) when I would avoid speaking in public and teachers would always tell my parents that I need to speak up more in class. Many people can say the same thing, but it’s all about the passion and delivery of those words. I’m very selective about the speeches I deliver as I always would rather speak about topics I’m intimate with rather than random topics (there are quite a bit of opportunities). When I’m intimate with a topic, the speech is exponentially more powerful. You can see which political candidates are more passionate on different topics by the delivery of their speech.
4. Positive trumps negative. You down with ABP? Yeah, you know me! Well, those aren’t the exact lyrics of OPP by Naughty By Nature, but those are lyrics you should live your life by. Always Be Positive. There’s not enough time in your life to be negative, and when you are, it radiates extremely quickly to other people. Remain positive at all times and let it shine… it’s contagious.
6. Leadership trumps politics. Rise above the rest. You don’t have to play politics if you can exhibit exceptional leadership. I tended to always avoid corporate America because I didn’t want to play politics. I’m not playing politics now and I don’t plan to. Exhibit solid leadership and you will quickly gain followers… not everyone wants to be a leader but everyone is always looking for the next.
7. The internet isn’t a channel, it’s THE channel. How can I not talk about digital media when it comes to my life and this blog. The Internet is THE channel. Hands down. Remember, digital > online. You don’t just have to go to your Macbook or Dell Computer to get to the Internet. As the communication medium penetrates our life, the candidates today who are leveraging it best are gaining a significant competitive advantage. I’ve actually spoken in the past about how I’m fascinated by the role the Internet is playing in the political sphere.
So without being too political, I’ve talked about Dave’s post and added some color. I’m personally learning a lot about the election process, the candidates, and most importantly, myself. This is surely going to be an eye opening year in politics and even if you are nonpolitical, it’s got to be at least fascinating from a digital media perspective.