Most people don’t know who Thor Heyerdahl was. I’m old, so I do, but I have to admit that I hadn’t thought about him much until today. I am in Oslo because I am speaking at a conference tomorrow, and my kind host treated me to the Thor Heyerdahl museum that shows off the exploits of the Norwegian explorer. It got me to thinking about what Internet marketers need to learn from him.
For those that don’t know, Heyerdahl was an anthropologist who believed that the Polynesian islands might have been settled by people from South America. Most scoffed at his theory because they felt that no ancient boat could have made it that distance.
Heyerdahl set out to prove them wrong, by constructing a boat (called the Kon-Tiki) fashioned after ancient Incan rafts, using the same techniques and materials. He put together a small crew and made the voyage in a bit over three months.
Yes, he made it. And yes, he had a crew. Somehow he convinced several other people that this was worth trying. Remember, he was an anthropologist, not a marketer.
So how come you can’t convince the people you work with to try out your ideas in Internet marketing? Why is it that you give up so easily when people say “no”? Do you think that the first five people Thor Heyerdahl asked to go replied, “Alone on an ancient raft for three months on the open sea? Where do I sign? Can we raft back to Peru, also?”
You might have to work hard to be persuasive. You might need to ask a lot more people than you want to. Perhaps you’ll need to pass up a few ideas to get agreement on others. But if you can’t convince people to experiment with Internet marketing, maybe you don’t belong in marketing.
Uh, and maybe you shouldn’t try anthropology, either.
