Why Knowing What You Want Is Like Spaghetti Sauce

I was watching the clip above on TED by Malcolm Gladwell about how Howard Moskowitz, a food scientist, discovered 1/3 of americans liked extra chunky spaghetti sauce. To cut a great story short Howard tested lots of different types of Spaghetti sauce and after testing every conceiveable type of sauce, Howard discovered that 1/3 of people liked extra chunky spaghetti sauce and that no other sauce company was servicing that need, by tapping into this gap in the market Prego, the brand he was working with, made $600 million.

What stuck out for me was that spaghetti sauce companies always researched their product by asking people what kind of sauce they like and no one ever said they liked extra chunky sauce, even though it turned out a 3rd of people actually did.

Which I think proves what Super Coach Michael Neill say's that most people do not really know what they want, and are just ordering off the menu for what they think they can have.

For example if you're someone who is thinking about a change of career, promotion or looking to start up a new busniess, are you thinking about doing something that really lights your fire, that you'd love to do and would make a difference to people or are you thinking about doing something that you think you can, something that is already on the menu and doesn't particular inspire you or make you happy?

I was talking to a colleague at work other day he mentioned that he wanted to build a career but did not know what he wanted to do, he mentioned that he was thinking or doing a qualification in carpentry, which is a great proffesion, hell we'll always need carpenters. When I asked why he wanted to be a carpenter, he said 'he had looked at the local college prospectus and that was the only thing he thought he would be able to do', in other words he had looked at the menu and picked what he thought he could have. I went on to ask what was he good at, and what did he enjoy? He explained he is just great at dealing with people, and putting on recruitment event and after a short conversation he discovered that in fact he'd love to get paid to do event management.

Howard Moskowitz says "The mind knows not what the tongue wants" but you could also say "The mind knows not what the person wants?"

It also struck me that in order to find out what kind of spaghetti sauce 1/3 of people liked, Howard and Prego had to create it because it previously didn't exist, at least not on supermarket shelves.

So rather than ordering off the menu of what you think makes you happy, ask yourself what would you love to create?

And go do that!


Lenny

For more information about Lenny Deverill-West and making changes with Cognitive Hypnotherapy & NLP check out www.startlivingtoday.co.uk

What did you Create in 2010?

This is my first Blog entry for my first Blog and as it is only recently 2010 I thought I would kick off with something around creating a great 2010.

I started training with the Trevor Silvester at the Quest Institute in Cognitive Hypnotherapy and one of the techniques we have learned on the course is what Trevor calls Timeline Reprocessing.

One of the cool things about Timeline Reprocessing is that it enables clients to go back significant emotional events (SEE) and gain new insights and understanding of those SEE. In many cases this is life changing and transforming as the clients are able to leave behind the negative beliefs that have held them back in life. Which is what main protagonists in the at least two of most famous Christmas stories, Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and Jimmy Stewart’s character in It’s A Wonderful Life, were able to do.

The thing I love about timeline is, this idea that you can go back in time and pass new insights and new learnings down to the younger you and it has the effect of changing your present perspective.

But what if you want to change your perspective about something that hasn’t happened yet? Like say in the next 12 months?

Today's Challenge

Imagine it’s 12 months from now and your sitting there looking back at what a great year 2010 was?

What was it that made 2010 so great?

What did you create in your relationships, family, business, job and anything else that is relevant to you in 2010?

How did you do it?

What was the very first thing you did? When did you do it?

If you could give the January 2010 You some advice that would help them create a great 2010 what would that advice be?

When you have played around with the above questions and written down your answers you should have plenty of ideas to get your 2010 moving in right direction. It might even be nice to review them a year from now.

Lenny


For more information about Lenny Deverill-West and making changes with Cognitive Hypnotherapy & NLP check out www.startlivingtoday.co.uk