Mission Possible

The theme for this year's AMA Leadership Summit is Mission Possible ... which I think is a great theme for a marketing conference. How many times do we all hear "that's impossible" in our day-to-day lives? Things like "It is impossible to expect a 90% response on a direct mail campaign" or "it is impossible to add a new program because budgets are too tight".

I believe a lot of truly great marketing programs never get off the ground because someone, somewhere, doubts they will work. We limit ourselves when we believe something can't be done just because we haven't seen it done before - like the 4 minute mile until Roger Bannister did it.

As marketers, we need to believe EVERYTHING is possible so we don't constrain our natural creativity and complete passion for our jobs. (I truly believe anyone in a marketing job must be passionate about their position -- otherwise, why would we subject ourselves to the madness?)

If the "law of attraction" is true, and there are lots of folks saying it is, by focusing on all the possibilities and rejecting the concept that something is impossible (and acting towards that end), we might actually achieve the impossible. Exciting thought, don't you agree?

So, as your leadership team goes off to learn about all that is possible for making your RAMA chapter even more amazing and beneficial to you, think about the possibilities in your life. And take action to make at least one of them a reality.