It’s said that without desire, nothing happens. So this week’s mini series is about where it comes from, how to increase it, and what to do with it when you have it (eg. sell loads of stuff).
It’s likely that the paragraph above achieved some (or even all) of what it promised, after all, it is a big promise (if things only happen with desire, then discovering where it comes from, increasing it, and how to use it to get what you want is just about the biggest promise anyone could make in business – right?).
On the other hand, if you read it and got zero reaction, then you were not sold on the importance of desire in the first place – and why should you be anyway? Desire is just a label used by psychologists, dictionary compilers, and copywriters to explain why some things sell, and some things don’t. No big deal eh 🙂
Speaking of which (dictionary wise), here’s the definition: “a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen” (all good investigations start with current thinking – this is part of First Principles philosophy).
What can induce “a strong feeling of wanting”? Going back to my first memories, toys were top of my list. Not just any old toys, but specific toys (and like most kids, my toy choices changed over time).
One year it was Brittains [the manufacturer] farm toys (I never lived on a farm, so the desire did not come from there).
But I did play a LOT in the fields where I grew up. In particular, we used to pretend that the bales of hay were machines, fortresses, or houses (and any number of other things). It’s also worth knowing that those days were amongst the happiest of my childhood.
Where did the DESIRE to play come from? If you look at other young animals, they pretty much all play, so it’s easy to argue that it’s inherent in the animal kingdom.
It’s also true that most animals mimic or copy what their elders (as well as peers) do. The trouble is, when you’re a kid, you can’t actually do what those in authority do, so you pretend instead. That’s play for you.
It’s also therefore easy to make the case that we’re all brainwashed into certain patterns of behaviour from the day we were born, and all the desires we later have are inherited from those early days (ie. our earliest experiences).
If that’s the case, then perhaps it’s true that where there is no desire, none can ever be created.
That’s where we’ll go in part 2. Maybe there’s more to desire than meets the eye.