You’ve all heard the story of the twin boys with such extreme personalities (one a complete pessimist and the other a complete optimist) that their mom took them to a psychiatrist. 

The psychiatrist first wanted to visit with the pessimist and took him into a room filled wall to wall with new toys.  Immediately, the little boy burst into tears.  When the psychiatrist asked why, he explained,

“Oh, I just know that if I played with them they would all break.”

More than a little disappointed with the reaction, the psychiatrist turned his attention to the optimist.  Instead of a room full of toys, he was taken to a room full of horse crap.  The boy squealed with delight, climbed to the top of the heap and immediately started digging.  When the psychiatrist asked him why, he exclaimed,

“Are you kidding me?!  With this much crap in here, there has to be a pony somewhere!”

Producers and agencies go out and get new toys all the time - the next solution or value-added service that they think will make their job easy, and them happy.  Then they get their new toys home and seem afraid to take them out of the box and play with them.

“Oh, I don’t really know how to play with it yet.  Something might go wrong, so I can’t take it out of the box.” The thought of reading the directions never seems to cross their mind and they turn their attention back to their old toy box.  It doesn’t make any sense!

And then I see other producers who walk into the room full of crap called healthcare reform and squeal like the little boy digging for his pony. They understand that when that much crap is dropped on the marketplace there are opportunities in there somewhere.  And you know what? I promise you that they will be the ones to find them, even if they have to create them.

Don’t tell me “I can’t”, “It won’t work in my market.”, “People here only buy relationships.”, “blah, blah, blah”.  Because that, my friends, truly is a bunch of crap!