The Big Bang – The Rest Of The Story

In life and business, especially an Internet Marketing business, you MUST be aware of your surroundings. You must know what’s going on with the market, what your competitors are doing and where you are positioned in your business and within the market.

To be successful at this, you need the eyes, ears and knowledge of others. Not knowing what’s going on can have catastrophic consequences for you and your company, and you might never know what hit you!

Here’s a humorous, true story from the “real” world. A young boy named Leonard witnessed the entire event.

It was a bitterly cold winter day in the small (almost forgotten) Minnesota town of Taunton. The wind was unhindered as it blew through Main Street swirling the snow as it went. Leonard was sitting in his dad’s car trying to keep warm. His car, like all the cars on the street, was diagonally parked.

In those days most cars had poor excuses for heaters, and Leonard’s was no different. It was common to leave the car running while you shopped (even if no one was in the car) in the winter. This not only kept the car warm for you, but ensured it would start when you were ready to leave.

Bundled from head to toe and bored to death, Leonard spent his time looking out the window watching the wind swirl the snow around parked cars, buildings and even along the street.

He saw a slow moving and rather stiff old man coming down the street.

The man couldn’t turn his neck without turning the entire upper half of his body. But being bundled up in coveralls, a heavy parka with the hood up over his head, it was even worse. He had no rear vision and very little side vision, unless he physically turned around.

Leonard watched as the man look up and down the street and then slowly get into his diagonally parked car. He gunned the engine a couple of times, put it into reverse and tromped on the gas pedal, to ensure it didn’t kill, as he let the clutch out.

There are a couple things you should know about cars of that era.
1) Mirrors were options. 2) The gear ratio for reverse was similar to 2nd gear (so you needed a few more RPMs to keep the car from killing).

So, the old man (with engine revving) popped the clutch; the car lurched backwards, Leonard heard a big bang and saw the car slam to a sudden stop killing the engine. The old man restarted the engine and pulled forward into his parking space again.

He slowly got out of the car, looked all around, looked up the street and down the street, but he saw nothing! Shaking his head, he got back into his car, repeated the entire procedure, and uneventfully headed for home.

Now, here’s “The rest of the story…”

What the old man didn’t see (but Leonard did) was that in the short minute or two between the time he checked out the street, got into his car and backed up, another car pulled up and stopped directly behind him. That driver jumped out and ran across the street into the Post Office.

When the old man’s car lurched backwards, he rammed that guy’s passenger door so hard the entire car rocked.

Then as the old man was pulling back into his parking space, the driver of the other car came running back across the street, jumped into his car and took off. He had no idea his passenger side had been smashed.

When when the old man finally got out, of his car, to check and see what the heck he hit, the guy was already gone and the street was vacant.

Both drivers thought they were well aware of their surroundings. I’m sure both were shocked and confused when they discovered the damage to their cars. The old man would have an idea of “when” it happened but not how. The other driver would have no clue as to when, how or what happened.

Are you monitoring it in real time or are you a few seconds behind? It’s almost impossible to be aware of everything all the time. And it’s impossible to see things from any perspective other than your own. That’s why you need the help of others to view your business from other perspectives.

You need the help of others to see what you can’t see. That’s where Armand and Marketing University help you.