The Role of Chance

Business is frightfully competitive. So we tend to believe only the fittest survive.

But success may take more luck than pluck.

Investment strategist Michael Mauboussin thinks so.

He claims we're too quick to discount the role chance plays in business.

“People attempt to extract lessons from what is mostly a random process,” Mauboussin tells readers of Inc.

“Once something has been successful, we start to believe it was the only thing that could have happened.”

By idolizing business winners, Mauboussin says, we forget there were others who followed the same strategies, but failed.

Remembering those failures helps you “keep your mind open to other possibilities,” he says.

Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould observed the same thing in nature. Gould thought chance was a deciding factor in the evolution of life on earth.

He based his conclusions on fossilized animals discovered in Canada’s Burgess Shale.

The animals in the Burgess Shale were all exquisitely suited to their environment. But none left modern descendants.

From the fact, Gould concluded that fitness is no guarantee of survival.

Survival is really a matter of luck.

5 Newsletter Must-Haves

Promoting an event?

Digital marketer Juli Cummins, writing for Innovation Insider, says these five features should be included in your next newsletter:

Videos. Videos are smart because they're easy to share and watch on mobile devices. Including one on how to use your Website can boost registrations.

QR codes. QR codes drive readers to videos, Websites, photos and other content you can't include in the newsletter.

Personalization. You can boost readership by segmenting your list. Segment attendees by category, interests or preferences and blast targeted newsletters.

Special deals. Reward readers with newsletter exclusives like gift cards and discounts.

Short cuts. Devote a chunk of your newsletter to Web links to useful info. Include a single sign-on link that lets readers register without entering a username and password.

Ready for the Content Arms Race?

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B2B marketers be warned!

We stand at the threshold of a "Content Arms Race," says Doug Kessler, creative director for Velocity, on Hubspot's Inbound Marketing Blog.

He compares the state of content marketing today to that of TV advertising in the 1950s.

"The first companies to jump into this exciting new medium discovered something big," he writes. "They discovered that they could use TV ads to build something called brands."

But it wasn't long before TV's pioneers were swamped by sodbusters, and TV advertising lost its luster.

"We’re in a similar place right now," Kessler writes. The window is shutting on opportunities to become content-marketing pioneers ("Those guys who put out that great stuff”).

Marketers instead are entering a Content Arms Race in which "every marketing discipline is becoming content-powered. 

"In the content marketplace, you’re not just up against your direct competitors," Kessler says. "You’re up against everyone who’s producing content on the same issues. You’re competing against all of these in an epic battle for the scarcest resource on Earth: people’s attention."

What's the fallout?

"When the deluge hits," Kessler says, "all this content is going to start to look a hell of a lot like something we’ve all become really, really good at ignoring. It’s going to look like advertising."

Avoid the Comma Splice

Part 3 of a 3-part series on the usage rules for commas
To avoid looking unlettered, master Rule Three:

Never use commas to splice together separate sentences.

Grammarians call an infraction of the rule a "comma splice." 

Here's an example:

Thanks for registering for FACE, check your email for confirmation.

What's the right way to state this? Chop it in two:

Thanks for registering for FACE. Check your email for confirmation.

Seem too choppy? You could use an em-dash:

Thanks for registering for FACE—check your email for confirmation. 

Or, at last resort, a semi-colon:

Thanks for registering for FACE; check your email for confirmation.

Marketers most often introduce comma splices when linking separate, but related, ideas:

Admission to FACE Expo is free, however you must pay to attend the conference sessions.

Grammarians consider the adverb however too "weak," however, to separate the ideas. Only a period, em-dash or semi-colon will do:

Admission to FACE Expo is free. However, you must pay to attend the conference sessions.

Admission to FACE Expo is free—however, you must pay to attend the conference sessions.

Admission to FACE Expo is free; however, you must pay to attend the conference sessions.

Mind Your Oxford Commas

Part 2 of a 3-part series on the usage rules for commas

A misused comma can make a sharp marketer look dull.

Here's Rule Two:

When you write a sentence that includes a list of three or more items, you may or may not put a comma before the last item in the list.

The decision depends on style, not grammar.

If you follow the Oxford Guide to Style, you'd write:

Join now and receive an official association decal, member's hat, and free admission to FACE.

But if you follow the Associated Press Stylebook, you'd write:

Join now and receive an official association decal, member's hat and free admission to FACE.

Fans of the "Oxford comma" argue it eliminates ambiguity. Consider this example:

Our keynoters include FACE's outgoing and incoming chairmen, Ted Danson and Al Gore.

It's unclear whether two or four keynote speakers will appear. An Oxford Comma would eliminate that ambiguity:

Our keynoters include FACE's outgoing and incoming chairmen, Ted Danson, and Al Gore.

Of course, you could remove the ambiguity by reordering the items in the list:

Our keynoters include Ted Danson, Al Gore and FACE's outgoing and incoming chairmen.

But an Oxford Comma would improve the sentence's readability. That's why even the Associated Press Stylebook would urge you to include one:

Our keynoters include Ted Danson, Al Gore, and FACE's outgoing and incoming chairmen.