Zig Ziglar, born Hilary Hinton Ziglar, made a pretty good career as a legendary speaker and writer, shaping minds across the globe with his teachings on the art of selling. I think of him often.
It’s not that I dream of being an American salesman from the sixties. Not one of those Mad Men types, slicked hair and a pink tie, puffing Lucky Strikes at dusk behind a walnut desk in a vintage office on 5th Avenue.
No, I think of Zig because he had a keen eye for human nature and an uncanny knack for understanding the market. He once said something that I use ever since I stumbled across the quote a few years ago: "Don’t become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific."
Be something real, something significant.
"Don’t become a wandering generality. Be a meaningful specific."
Internships
With the jobmarket tighter every day and opportunities shrinking, the urge is to cast a wide net, hoping to catch whatever comes. Zig says otherwise. Know your audience, speak to them. Only them.
As a company offering internships, your brand isn’t just a beacon to attract students like moths to a lamp.
It’s a filter to sift the right ones from the wrong.
Seeking interns? Don’t be a drifter, sleeping under a tattered tent, aimlessly scavenging for talent in the dumpsters of an overcrowded jobmarket.
Be significant to a few rather than 'just okay' to many.
So to rephrase the famous phrase used by advertising agency BBH ‘When the world zigs, zag’ I suggest that you do the opposite:
When the world Zigs, Zag.