Scared

If you want to really scare people... and I believe this to be true for broadcasting as well as business in general ...don't bother talking about risks. Don't waste your time discussing potential for failure. Don't yammer on about doom and gloom.

If you really want to see someone shake, all you have to do is come up with a better plan.

Mediocrity is easy. It feels safe. It's like a warm blanket. You didn't put much effort in, so the reward isn't great... but hey, you didn't risk much either, right? In most people's eyes, that's a winning proposition.

Most would prefer to coast along.

And why not? They worked hard. Certainly, after some hard earned success, they should be able to rest on their laurels.

...right?

And that's how one begins to embrace mediocrity.

It's a Friday... he can leave early just this once. He'll go home, make time for a shower and a shave before his big night out. Surely he's earned that.

Friday's early night out then becomes a Wednesday's long lunch and next Thursday's promo copy that's, y'know, good enough... eventually leading to blowing off Monday's show-prep because it isn't really that important, is it? And so what if next month's contest will be the spitting image of last month's contest... and the contest before that. It was good enough then, so it'll be good enough now, right?

So be it.

It's good enough to get by - and if you're doing well, then.... why not?

Then one day, a guy comes along and says "hey, what if we don't give away qualifying prizes this weekend? What if - instead - we put every single caller in a drawing to win the grand prize!"

...but that's not how we do it here...

"Yeah! We'll flood the airwaves with people getting in the drawing. It'll sound like constant excitement all weekend long every time somebody turns on the radio!"

...but that's not how we do it here...

"I mean, really, what good does it do to push 18 winners into Monday morning's 7:20am grand prize drawing when we could have hundreds?! Now THAT'S recycling dayparts."

...but that's not how we do it here...

And the next thing you know, you're scared.