Today, I published a post — the 11th in our Wednesday Writing Prompt series — in honor of Star Wars Day. I invited you to have some creative fun and write about the five lessons you learned from Star Wars. Well, here are mine.
- Trust your instincts. Whether in business or motherhood or other facets or my life, I generally find that when “I have a bad feeling about this,” there is good cause. Maybe it’s that with age has come increased confidence. Sure, I get nervous about things that I could relax about, but in general, if I have a bad feeling, there’s a reason and it’s time to choose a different path.
- Listen to old people — even the kooky ones. Older adults — in your family and in the workplace — have things to say. Important things. Lessons that could help you. And I’m going to expand this beyond the likes of just old people to include more experienced individuals. I’m not going to lie. There were times early in my career when I rolled my eyes at people more experienced than I was because I was too self-absorbed. If I could go back and smack that version of myself, I would because if I had taken the time to listen to those individuals, I could’ve learned something. Fortunately, I figured it out relatively quickly and have been fortunate to have had wonderful mentors over the years.
- Size matters not. Heads out of the gutter, people. Just as little (and old) Yoda proves he is mighty, we know small companies might provide a better product that large ones, less popular ideas might actually be more right, and small groups of people can do amazing things with the right attitudes and smarts.
- Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Seriously, Yoda was a smart little dude. Hate leads to suffering. History has shown us this. And so often it starts with fear — fear of the unknown, fear of those who are different than us. And fear can typically be quelled with a little knowledge and understanding and an open heart.
- There is no such thing as luck. OK, I do believe a little in luck. But I also believe you can’t build a successful career and happy life on luck alone. You’ve gotta do the work. Being in the right place at the right time can take a person only so far. Preparation, a good attitude, hard work and surrounding yourself with the right people (ya know, like Jedi masters) will always be more powerful than luck.
BONUS: Reuse your content. Lastly, here’s a professional content marketing lesson I think we can totally draw from Star Wars. I frequently tell clients that you don’t need to come up with fresh content constantly. Reuse some of that material; just alter it slightly. In the Star Wars films, how many times does it appear that the writers are just re-interpreting the same basic plot line? How many freaking Death Stars are there anyway? But ya know what … They’re still so darned entertaining that people pay the cash to see them anyway. And then buy them on DVD and re-mastered DVD and Blue Ray and Blue Ray with new footage, and so on. They make bazillions of dollars on what I might argue is a great deal of re-purposed content.