Slogans are powerful tool. Advertising agencies are paid millions to come up with new ones which may capture our imagination, or even go viral on the world’s e-mail system.
They are used increasingly in personal development and productivity too. Look at the last couple of books you may have read in these subject areas and I bet there is a sub-title which aims to sum-up 300 pages in 5 words. Often it seems like they started with those 5 words and spread it out over 300 pages, but that is a whole other rant.
There is nothing wrong with a good slogan – there is a poor one attached to the logo at the top of this page – but just because it sounds good or makes us smile, doesn’t mean it is dripping with wisdom.
Now I make no bones of the fact that I have a lot of time for Merlin Mann – he is a superb writer, and tries very hard not to put anything down that is merely rhetoric. However, I read the following quote in a very good piece of his I was reading yesterday:
“Spend less time fantasizing about ‘success’ and way more time making really cool mistakes.”
Couldn’t have put it any better myself. Who doesn’t want to make ‘really cool mistakes’? Frankly, I just want to be part of ANYTHING that is ‘really cool’. And the colloquialism – ‘way more time’ – just reminds you that this is a really person telling you this from experience, rather than an academic telling you it from the ether.
Only it’s crap. It may sound like something to tell you colleague, or to have printed out on your cubicle wall, but I assure you it is manure. I am not for a moment suggesting that Merlin intentionally created that sentence to intice you into his following, nor am I suggesting that he meant it literally. I merely use this as an example to point out that a large number of us WILL nod along with a “hell yeah” when we read that, and genuinely think that Edison set about to make as many mistakes as possible as this was the best way to achieve success (I’m not going to get into this now. I’m really not. Nope. Won’t be drawn. Okay, just a bit – head for success, but treat failure as nothing more than a road-sign. Was that a slogan? 
).
These things are all over the place. They act like little hooks. Modern day Ciceros lassoing your sole. They are the Emperor’s New Clothes.
Far be it more me to say that they are all an utter waste of page or monitor. Some of them have helped me a great deal, but it is important that we challenge what they are say, rather than just get suckered in by the way they say it.
