Even as we cry out for freedom,
none of us truly wants freedom,
certainly not our customers
Forget about Mel Gibson screaming “Freedom!” for three hours in the 1995 multiple award-winning movie Braveheart until the English king finally shuts his movie character up by slicing off his head.
Freedom is like those $300 fancy high heel shoes. They look really great on the other gal, but they’re a constant pain when you’re walking around in them.
Truth be told, freedom is a heavy burden:
If you have ever transitioned or been downsized or outsourced …
from a work situation where your salary was predictable and your duties somewhat defined and tolerable …
to being on your own where you must define every aspect of your work — from defining what you do to communicating that to others to generating money
… then you’ve experienced the burden of freedom. Perhaps you’re experiencing this now or contemplate having to face that burden in the future, whether with joy or fear.
The present and the future become scary, and the past becomes a pleasant dream you want to continue: ”Ah, the good old days. That lousy abusive boss wasn’t so bad.”
Freedom vs. the illusion of freedom:
Everyone, including your customers, want to be free of this terrible burden. They want to be free from freedom.
They want the illusion of freedom, the illusion of choice, the illusion that they have a say in the matter.
You help your customers by limiting their choices: green or black, cash or credit, paper or plastic, priority or standard shipping?
You don’t help them at all by asking them: “What do you want?” Because they don’t want to face that question. They don’t know what they want, only what they don’t want.
Help their find their freedom through limitation. “Green or black?” instead of “What color?”
Why Freedom Sucks:
Freedom aggravates as much as it alleviates: freedom of choice puts the whole blame of failure on your shoulders. (“If I choose standard shipping and the package doesn’t get here on time, I lose the client.”)
As freedom encourages each of us to try, it also multiplies our failures and frustration. Yet, freedom eases our frustration by making the pain relievers of action, movement, change, and protest available. (“Okay, I chose standard shipping last time and I saw how that screwed me up. I’ll try priority shipping this time.”)
We end up getting caught in freedom’s vicious cycle of failing and getting frustrated, then trying again. (“Hell, now the priority shipping screwed up this time. Gawd, this is frustrating. Can’t they deliver one package on time?! Okay, I’ll give them one more try.”)
The answer to the failure and frustration that individual freedom brings?
We join a group to escape individual responsibility, “to be free from freedom.”
By doing so, we make the group responsible for our failures and frustrations.
And more importantly, by immersing ourselves in the group, we can hide from having to face our fear of freedom.
I saw this again and again during my days in Toastmasters, the international organization of public speaking clubs. New members would join, advance in their speaking ability, and earn recognition until they were finally crowned “Distinguished Toastmasters.”
Then, what would they do? Get an outside speaking engagement to take their speaking experience to the next level? Nope, they’d go back and start at the beginning again, like a high school graduate who goes back to kindergarten to earn his high school diploma a second time.
But it’s not enough to simply join a group and become a part of something bigger than yourself.
To free yourself of the burden of freedom by identifying yourself with a group, you have to lose your own identity. And your customers are begging you for the opportunity to lose their identities and be free of freedom.
Which we’ll look at next time, as I trash myself in true examples during my Toastmasters days.
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