I enjoyed some rare time with my wife last night, who I found giggling on the couch watching that old yarn "City Slickers".  That's the story of three city guys who, going through various trials in life, decided to get away from the city and the demands of work and family life for a "cowboy vacation experience" at a ranch.

As I sat and enjoyed the wry humour of Billy Crystal, I was riveted by an interaction by the cowboy character played by Jack Palance ("Curly") and Crystal's character "Mitch". Here's an excerpt of the dialogue, when just the two of them were out rustling cattle, sharing a fire, and around the time of that hilarious scene with Jack singing about "tumbleweed" (accompanied by Billy badly playing the harmonica):

Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? [points index finger skyward] This.

Mitch: Your finger?

Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit.

Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?"

Curly: [smiles and points his finger at Mitch] That's what you have to find out.

I've never had a dream of being a cowboy - well, maybe just once! - but cowboy wisdom makes a whole lot of sense for marketers and sales people.  Because it comes out later that what Curly meant was - find your passion and go with it. Singlemindedly. With fire in the belly. With plans to realize it.

Awfully fine sage wisdom, don't you think? How often do we get things so convoluted and try to do too many things that we groan with the weight of it all? (My shoulders testify that I'm as guilty as the next person.) Yet marketing needs a singlemindedness to be successful.  Selling too... sequential steps, but one step at a time usually wins.  And the overwhelming focus, in marketing and sales, should be about how the offer overwhelmingly helps people realize their dreams. Sometimes, we need to be reminded of that, because it can prove to be the basis for passion.

In City Slickers, Curly passes away while on the trail doing what he loves ("cowboying"), Mitch eulogizes him (despite barely knowing him), and the influence of one man's cowboy wisdom lives on and is shared with others to create new possibilities. And the "boys from the city" return home, a little better prepared for the daily grind because they have all recognized "just one thing".

Mitch's realization may be the most powerful thing in the world:

[Mitch's family has picked him up at the airport; he is hugging his children as Barbara walks up]

Mitch: Hey, look what I found! [points to his mouth and smiles broadly]

Barbara: Ooh, that looks nice. Where did you find that?

Mitch: [feigning exasperation] Colorado! Isn't it always in the last place you look?