I have been MIA for the past few weeks as I was on vacation and during this time I took many cabs and shuttles. Each time I made it a point to sit at the front to chat with the driver. This particular driver peaked my interest; he was constantly smiling and laughing like he was on the top of the world.
This individual reminded me of Bob Parsons, owner of GoDaddy. If you remember, a few years ago many individuals didn’t know about GoDaddy and even though Parsons felt that he was offering a better product with great customer service he only had a small slice of the market. When Bob Parsons started GoDaddy, he saw his bank account dwindle, he started with $30 million dollars and that went to $10 Million then to $6 Million. Any individual at this point would get worried and start to plan an exit strategy.
Bob could have bailed on the company but instead he invested in customer research and found out that the reason people didn’t buy from GoDaddy was because they didn’t know it existed!
So, Parsons went out to tell the world about his company and he invested in superbowl ads (often controversial but very effective). This creative marketing campaign created massive buzz around the company and doubled his market share.
How is this related to the driver I met on my vacation? He had the same attitude that Parsons speaks about. When Parsons company was on the brink of bankruptcy, he attended an event at a hotel and while leaving he noticed that the valet driver was very happy and it made him think….”How bad could it really get? If I lost all my money on Go Daddy, I’ll end up parking cars and I am sure I will be happy!” His attitude of “the worst is never so bad” allowed him to take risks, be creative and not fear failure.
Rather he embraced.
Because of his shift in attitude, GoDaddy has now become an extremely successfully company.
