B2B Word on the Street: Doer
This Week’s B2B Word on the Street is: DOER
On the wall across from my desk, two images look back at me from inside their frames. They’re old gifts, one from each of my parents, that give me positive encouragement each day.
The first, on the top, is a colorful sketch of a cowboy riding a red bucking bronco. Although his hat’s been tossed from his head, and the horse is a good six feet in the air, the cowboy appears to have things under as much control as possible. Down by an old cow skull on the desert sand in the corner is a message: “For William, by Daddy.”
I remember the night my dad drew that sketch, even though it was 45 years ago. Sadly, he was killed not long afterward in a car accident, so it’s special for many reasons.
Below the cowboy sketch is the second item, a quote in calligraphy from Theodore Roosevelt, entitled “The Doer,” which sits with a red mat in a simple wooden frame. I think my mom found it in a garage sale 25 years ago and thought of me. This was in the early years of starting my B2B marketing agency, and the gift couldn’t have come at a better time. I can’t tell you how often I’ve looked at that famous quote: “It is not the critic that counts…” and either grunted, groaned or smiled, depending on what business or marketing challenge I was facing, or had just overcome. If anyone ever personified the message of “The Doer,” it’s my mom. She was a working mother, a nurse with a career that spanned decades. Now retired, she still stays busy – even busier than me – with volunteer work, painting and gardening.
So what do these two framed items have to do with each other, and what could they possibly have to do with you? Aside from the fact that they look like they belong together, here’s what I see:
1.) When running a business (or riding a bronco), try to keep your cool. Everything is not always under your control, no matter how much you want it to be. Things will settle down eventually, and the excitement is half the fun.
2.) Get things done. Be enthusiastic and devoted in your drive for success. Be willing to risk failure, but never neglect to learn from it. Wear your scars proudly and dare greatly. “Your place will never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither defeat nor victory.”
Billy Mitchell is the president and creative director of Atlanta-based B2B marketing firm MLT Creative. Located on the east side of Atlanta, GA, with a Northeast office in Rhode Island, Mitchell co-founded MLT Creative in 1984 along with partners Craig Lindberg and Glenn Taylor.
Known as the Idea Launch Pad™ for B-to-B marketers, MLT Creative’s services include strategic planning, positioning, brand development, advertising and sales promotions for business-to-business clients.