I was having a conversation with a CEO and I asked him if he would ever let research override his intuition. He said he would, I asked him if he believed in genius – or if he believed in love. I asked him to describe his daughter’s smile or the way he felt on September 11th. I asked if he could comprehend how Beethoven could have composed his ninth symphony even though he was profoundly deaf at the time. He looked at me blankly. He told me that life wasn’t just artistry and poetry. He said that business required more than belief. He said that selling to people had become a repeatable formula. “That all sounds rather tedious,” I said. “It’s business,” he replied. “It’s making money. It’s commerce.” I asked him if he found value in promoting things he didn’t believe in.
Dan Carlton, CEO
