Product Fanaticism as Performance Driver

“You might be wondering if flying off to Budapest to meet with sau¬ sage gurus is the best use of an entrepreneur’s time. You bet it is. Your product is all-important. Why should your customer be excited about your business and its offerings if you’re not? Ralph Waldo Emerson fa¬ mously observed that “there is no strong performance without a little fanaticism in the performer.” Right on. Nothing pleases me more than”

“Taubman malls, and A&W. But the class really wanted to know more about the logic behind the new United States Football League (USFL), the spring football experiment of which the Michigan Panthers were inaugural members. The world certainly did not “need” spring- summer professional football. There was plenty of football on televi¬ sion during the fall, and the Super Bowl drew international audiences in the hundreds of millions. In the spring-summer, fans seemed per¬ fectly happy with the other sports and activities on offer. But television advertisers longed for more television sports aimed at men 18—54 years old, especially in the spring and early summer months after the end of the hockey, basketball, and football seasons. There was no NASCAR on TV to speak of in those days, and golf, in its pre-Tiger era, had limited appeal. So only baseball provided con¬ tent over the summer for the companies advertising to guys who drink beer, chew tobacco, use razor blades, and buy cars (which sell best in the spring and summer months).”