Earlier this week, I let readers know about my new book, “Do It Wrong Quickly”. I talked about my motivations in writing the book, one of which is to respond to people who feel that they can’t do things wrong quickly where they work. “You don’t know my boss,” they tell me. Well, here’s your chance to tell me all about your boss and win something in the process.
Announcing “Do It Wrong Quickly” the contest.
I’m looking for stories—tell me about your boss (or your colleagues or anyone else) who just doesn’t get it. They won’t experiment. They’re stuck. They won’t try things. They’re blocking your progress and everyone else’s. They really need my book.
So here’s the prize. I’ll pick the top three stories sent to me—the most egregiously ugly situations caused by indecision, inaction, or just plain stupidity over how marketing must work today—and I will send that boss a copy of my book.
I will also send the submitters of those top three entries a copy of my book, too. And for the submitter (not the boss) of the winning story, I’ll provide a free ticket to the Internet Strategy Forum’s Executive Summit in Portland on July 19th and 20th worth $300. I’ll be speaking at that conference along with Yahoo!’s CMO, Cammie Dunaway with other excellent speakers on the agenda. (Thanks to ISF’s Steve Gehlen for making this excellent prize available.)
So send me your tired, your poor marketers yearning to market for free. The Internet offers untold possibilities for doing things a new way, and similarly limitless ways to screw that up. If your boss thinks that the Web is just like TV or just like print or just like anything else, tell me. If your boss wants to debate every decision endlessly to reach the dreaded consensus, tell me. If your boss won’t try anything new, tell me. The winning story will be the exact opposite of what works in Internet marketing and will result in the maximum damage to a campaign or a company’s marketing program.
The stories don’t need to be long but they do need to be true. I’ll post the entries the way you write them, so use your discretion as to how revealing you want to be. You are responsible for what you say and submitting your entry gives me the right to publish them as I wish. (I’m not accepting submissions from people who work at my company, IBM, because I don’t want any appearance that I’d favor those entrants in choosing a winner.) Thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to submit—good luck.
