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Too many marketers fail to develop a range of marketing teachers

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As simple early mistake marketers make is: NOT MOVING past their initial teacher.

When I began marketing, it felt like I was about to enter a maze. With no map.

So it makes sense that I wanted to find a guide who could “show me the way.”

I didn’t go to school for marketing right away, so my first teachers weren’t professors, but digital gurus: Gary Vaynerchuk, Grant Cardone, Andy Friscella, David Cancel (of Drift).

While I was lucky to find some great teachers, many were not good (I.e., Grant Cardone).

And even the teachers who were (Gary Vee), I had to evolve past them. I had to rethink and evolve my marketing mental models.

Why this matters: Rarely is the best sage found first and it’s hard to dig deeper once you’ve found your first “teacher.”

Put simply, rethinking is hard work.

We’d rather fall in love with our first teacher than do the work to “go to the source.”

An example is Simon Sinek.

While a good thinker, he has few original thoughts. So when he wrote the book, The Infinite Game, I was curious to where this idea originated.

James P. Carse wrote Finite and Infinite Games in 1986.

"There are at least two kinds of games: finite and infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play. A finite player seeks power; the infinite one displays self-sufficient strength.”

Simon Sinek’s book “Dives into and expands upon Dr. James Carse’s Finite and Infinite Games, particularly in how game theory pertains to business.” I read both, Simon’s first and then Jame’s.

I didn’t need to read Simon’s.

That’s what experienced marketers realize: Most ideas are regurgitated and it’s better to go to the source. You will have more clarity around the idea or concept and better able to actualize it.

Sure, some authors have a gift of bringing antiqued and opaque ideas to the future with clarity. But many don’t. Most new age marketing gurus (myself included) don’t know shit. We’re taking things we hear, slightly modifying them, and presenting them as original ideas.

And most of the ideas are positioned to incentize the guru.

It’s not the truth.

Rather than settling at the first teacher you find, dig deeper. Find the voices who have lasted the test of time. Take in all information and have the courage to update and evolve where you get your ideas from.