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Two small jumps are sometimes better than one big leap.

Joanne Logie
Today's fortune submitted by:
Joanne Logie

Boston, MA, USA

Joanne Logie, founder of New England Vacation Rentals, excels in evolving business strategies and tackling challenges. She's dedicated to enhancing the vacation rental market, ensuring client success and memorable guest experiences. An independent visionary, ready for the next challenge.

Pinky Power.

Today's Marketing Cookie is about learning an easier way to do things in the hardest possible way.


There are a few easy ways, and thousands of hard ways to do virtually everything there is to do. The only way to truly know the difference is to have thoroughly tried and tested both. This is what is called "experience." If the hard way we've been going is not quite painful enough, we will accept it as the easiest way until the day we finally, and sometimes accidentally, discover that there's an even easier way, and then we give ourselves a resounding slap on the forehead and say, "Duh!"


This principle is true in marketing and in virtually every area of life. Allow me to tell you about my pinky finger. Well, I will get to my pinky in a moment, but first, I want to tell you something else...


I spent many years trying to teach myself how to play the guitar. My initial goal was to become good enough to play in front of people. The spark of my dream was first ignited when a friend invited me to see the Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra at the Stuart Street Playhouse in Boston.


They brought to life the glorious classic rock music of Queen, David Bowie, The Beatles, The Who, and Led Zeppelin, which has inspired my very own rock and roll fantasy. As I raised my fist in the air that night, I decided that I too shall one day do my part to create rock music.


After a year of struggling to learn the guitar, I joined an amateur band formed by a local music school. We practiced together for twelve weeks and performed two mini-concerts in front of real people. Wow! I had realized my dream and had created actual rock music! Real people, who were not required to attend and who were not related to me, came to our shows and even clapped for us.


After our show, I decided to graduate from learning by myself in my room and take some real guitar lessons. My neighbor at the time, Chip was a true rock master, who toured with a number of bands in the 1980s and served as the house bass player for a recording studio in Nashville, TN. In my first session with Chip, I played a few of my favorite riffs, which I had been working tirelessly on. He smiled and said, "I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce you to your pinky finger."


I said, "Huh?"

He continued, in his ever-present southern accent, "When you came here today in your car, did you drive on all four wheels?"

I said, "Yeah?"

He said, "Good. I want you to drive that guitar with all four fingers too. The good lord gave you a pinky finger and I reckon, if you want to make God's music, you'd best learn to use it."


He was right. For over a year and a half, I had been favoring my strongest fingers and the pinky had been just sort of along for the ride. Since then, Chip has made me practice these long drills for 20 minutes a day, rolling up and down the fretboard. I have to use every finger to complete the drills and this includes my pinky. Ouch! If there's one thing I've learned about my pinky finger, it is very tender and really does not like pain. Have you ever heard a pinky swear? It's not good.


Anyway, I struggled at first to use my pinky as you might imagine. I had to look at my fingers and ensure I was hitting the right string and fret. After several weeks, however, I was flying through the drills in half the time and my pinky already knows exactly where to be, without looking. The big Ah-Ha moment for me was when I was playing the solo part in Bohemian Rhapsody and my pinky was suddenly doing 25% of the work. Now this song wasn't nearly as hard as it used to be!


This is exactly what I wanted to tell you about earlier.


In one month, I had relearned the guitar and it become much easier to play. By adding a fourth finger, the neck of the guitar had become shorter and I didn't have to work as hard to reach all the strings. I could play faster, and more music was now literally within reach. 


While I am proud of going from zero skills and then jumping straight into a band in one year, it would have been so much better had I learned to use my pinky from the start. Sometimes it would be better to follow what today's fortune says, "Two small jumps are sometimes better than one big leap."

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 Cookie

Percent Daily Value

Inspiration

Percent Daily Values are based on the essential nutrients required to maintain a healthy mindset, fostering success in your marketing, prosperity in your career, and fulfillment in your life.

100%

100%

100%

100%

Affirmation

Motivation

Aspiration

Submitted by:

Joanne Logie

Unpackaged in: 

Boston, MA, USA

Cookie Ingredients:

Ingredient

What marketing is really saying:

"Kid's popcorn, candy and soda: $158."

What marketing says:

"Kid's discounted movie tickets: $8."

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