Internet Marketing and Anthropology
Nov 18th, 2008 by Pavel Becker
While watching the Nanny Diaries I came across this little nugget of knowledge: The biggest problem for any anthropologist studying a particular sociological model is that being exposed to this segmented group of people eventually leads to a total assimilation with them and the only way to stop this process is to immediately remove yourself from that environment.
It’s not about your will, it’s not about your desire - it’s about the environment!
Here is a little story for you.
Before I moved to America I was a successful businessman, pulling down a decent income, wearing cashmere coats, eating in fine restaurants, driving nice cars. I’d never done any manual labor.
At some point our economy collapses, I loose everything and decide to come to America to start over.
I had no money, didn’t know a soul, and took a job in construction because nothing else was open to me.
My environment changed drastically: from business-development to hanging vinyl siding, from a nice coat to Carhart overall, from a good food to McDonald’s, from sedans to pickup trucks, from my friends with college degrees, clean clothing and intact teeth to a bunch of stinky beat-up dentally-challenged rednecks.
At first it felt awkward and in some sense entertaining, but then I started noticing that my entire system of values started to change: good food would mean Burger King instead of McDonald’s, good clothing would mean Carhart instead of Wal-Mart, good car would mean an old pickup truck with a few hundreds miles on it that you can haul a pile of tools in instead of new shiny sedan (how are you going to put an air compressor in there?)
It didn’t even bother me to wear bandanas in public and to admit that I only made $10 an hour!
Everyday life has a way of numbing you to the point where you don’t see that there’s anything wrong.
Before I knew it I became a construction worker from some Jerkwater, USA and I actually spent a few years doing construction before I found enough strength to pull myself out of this situation and to come back to being an entrepreneur with clean clothes and clean car.
I don’t eat fast food anymore and I don’t get exited when I see a De Walt On Sale! sign.
If I had told those guys I used to work with my plans to become a successful Internet marketer or my dream of owning my own home-based business, how do you think they would have reacted? Seriously, I would have sounded crazy.
Was it easy getting back on my feet? Nope.
Do I regret any of the hard work I put in? Not one drop of it.
Remember what Scarlet said: Being exposed to a segmented group of people eventually leads to a total assimilation with them and the only way to stop this process is to immediately remove yourself from that environment.
What defines your environment?