Boredom + Curiosity = Drive

This equation recently hummed inside my mind. It cropped up in my instagram feed. Courtesy of a design agency quoting a baker-cum-barman from London’s Wired magazine reader get-together.

It’s not necessarily the wonder of the wisdom that motored my mental mips.

Although it is an interesting launch pad. I’ve blogged a few times on the importance of curiosity for a winning salesperson. (Precisely five years ago here, inspired by an architect for instance.)

Neither is it interesting due to the particular context. Of those that promote a plugged-in permanence plunge.

Indeed, I did think on a kind of equation from the same time for the sparkler of my interest; design – purpose = decoration. Or anything along those lines to implore usefulness must trump ego.

And naturally how this translates into a selling; pitch – problem ≠ prospect.

On the vital existence of curiosity, yes, I see that the most successful salespeople possess this quality. Yet the best buyers surely also exhibit it.

And they would seldom admit to being bored.

I wondered how this manifests itself; satisfaction + jolt = opportunity? After all, who’s truly happy bumbling along, where to be merely ‘satisfied’ is to be frustrated that you wish things were better.

Perhaps you could encourage suspects through assessing how curious they are; status quo + curiosity = improvement?

People are as prone to deny they’re curious as they would say they aren’t open-minded, right?

I’m reminded of the commonplace new product pitch that flounders; “It’s new, so you gotta see me”.

If you can rather master the link to let the inquisitive fly, then you should be onto something; “…so if you’re curious whether there might be a different way…” and engage buyer warp-drive.