![leading contributer to unrealistic optimism leading contributer to unrealistic optimism](https://i2.wp.com/housesittingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/house_sitting_expectations.jpg)
And I want to do this quickly (two years? three years?). Similar to what Salesforce does every year, I want this to be the industry leading conference where tens of thousands of people in the ecosystem show up. Our audacious goal is to make this the “Dreamforce of Content Marketing”. For example, is the customer acquisition cost in a certain marketing channel in line with the lifetime value of customers in said channel? This would be a terrible place to use irrational optimism because you could bankrupt your business.Īnother example of where these two strategies work together has been in organizing our first large-scale conference.
![leading contributer to unrealistic optimism leading contributer to unrealistic optimism](https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xODM0MDk5OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0OTgxMzA0OH0.0fUFKNbuvYRASpI46iX0Vqee2ZXrlh_ZqUBvhyIotaY/img.jpg)
And then the data should be analyzed, always in an ongoing, iterative fashion, to make smarter decisions. First, every team and product needs to have the required instrumentation to be able to measure performance. This is where a data-driven culture is essential. However, basing low-level strategy and tactical decisions on gut feel or impulse can be extremely dangerous. I naively thought this would be possible, and through sheer willpower, we signed up 2,500 of the world’s best publications.
#Leading contributer to unrealistic optimism license#
In our case, skeptics wondered if we could ever convince any top-tier publishers to license us their content. If it takes our legacy competitor five years to build a product, how can we build a better product in six months? That is where a suspension of disbelief and “anything is possible” mindset is perfect. Irrational optimism is perfect for big picture goal setting and for setting ambitions way beyond what is feasible for a startup. So how do we reconcile these two seemingly contradictory viewpoints?