Luck's Two-Way Street.

Today's Marketing Cookie says you will see some good luck coming your way. I'm not so sure if I believe in dumb luck. I think you have to pay attention and take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves—especially in marketing. You'd be amazed at how "lucky" you can be when you pay enough attention to capitalize on opportunities. With that said, I can also say that sometimes good things do show up at the very moment when you need them most, like Mrs. Barnes.

When I was a starving, homeless actor in NY, a friend introduced me to a grouchy old lady, Mrs. Barnes. She agreed to let me stay in the master bedroom upstairs in exchange for mowing the lawn once a week. I don't know if that was lucky, but it was a great deal! With sleeping in my car as my alternative option, I moved in with grouchy Mrs. Barnes right away.

The house was very old and smelled like pancakes. The wallpaper must have started to peel during the Second World War, and being so resourceful, she put little pieces of Scotch tape to hold it down along the seams. Just about the time when Elvis first sang "Hound Dog," the little pieces of tape had become so old that they turned yellow and completely lost their stickiness. So, she put new little pieces of tape to hold the old ones. Then, as the Rubik's Cube grew in popularity, the second set of tape had worn out and she began putting new little pieces of tape on the wallpaper, to hold down the first and second pieces. It was almost a work of art, but then again, no.

One evening when I returned from a play rehearsal, I said, "Hello Mrs. Barnes" and started on my way up the stairs. She came around the corner from the dining room to give me my mail, but when she looked up at me, she said, "Oh!" She stopped dead in her tracks, turned around, and walked back out of sight. A moment later, she came back toward me with a tape dispenser. A big piece of the wallpaper in the staircase had lifted and she moved at surprising speed to fix it, saying, "This just won't do. You said you won't peel any more now, didn't you?"

While Mrs. Barnes was focused on the wallpaper, my primary job was to mow the lawn. Coincidentally, Mrs. Barnes also had a barn. In the barn, she had an old grouchy horse, an old grouchy goat, an old grouchy mule, and a sweet little pony. I liked the pony. What I didn't realize is that the animals would basically walk around the yard eating the grass all day, so I never had to mow the grass for the entire time I lived there. The odd thing is that she always told me what a great job I had been doing with the lawn.

One day her daughter came home to visit and thanked me for looking out for her mother. She said that having me in the house gave her tremendous peace of mind. She went on to express how "lucky" they were to have someone like me in their lives... and all this time, I thought I was the lucky one. If she hadn't said that, I may never have known that luck is a two-way street. In fact, life has a funny way of guiding you to others who need you as much as you need them.

As marketers, we should take this idea to heart. Your customers need you, just as much as you need them. Perhaps today would be a good day to let them know how lucky you feel to have them as a customer.