A book, a magazine, and a company that never stopped...

I bet your asking yourself what those three things have to do with each other. Here is your answer. The book: is iCon, a biography about Steve Jobs and the birth of Apple Computer. The magazine is GQ, and the company that never stopped trying is Palm.

About a year ago I read iCon and was really fascinated by the chapter regarding Steve's decision to drop the Newton (an Apple version of the Palm pilot) and move the direction of the company into portable music via the iPod. This was a huge directional change for the company, and a deviant direction from how it appeared the tech industry was going. Now in hindsight we see that it was brilliant decision that launched Apple to the forefront of portable music technology.

Onto the magazine and the company that never stopped trying. I recently received my January issue of GQ. As I was thumbing through it I saw an ad for the new Palm Trio that has Google searchability. And it really got me thinking. You know Palm never gave up, they weren't positioned correctly when the digital music revolution wave hit the technology world. But they never stopped working to innovate the product they had. They took what they had, which was a well-designed hand held device and worked to make that an advantage. If they couldn't get on board the digital music revolution, they wouldn't let the wireless industry pass them by.

The Selling Point: This is a key fundamental quality for a sales team within your organization--Never stop trying! I had a boss (now mentor) once tell me this quote in relation to searching for a job and I think it applies here. "If a shark stops swimming they die, so never give up and always keep trying". I think we can all learn from Palm, never stop investing in your product or your team even when the market doesn't seem to be going your way.