Tweet

Agency

Guest post by: Seth Godin

Article Overview: A door is not responsible if it swings and hits you in the nose. Neither is the hand of the guy who punched you.

Agency

A door is not responsible if it swings and hits you in the nose. Neither is the hand of the guy who punched you.

Philosphers and lawyers talk about agency. Responsibility comes with the capacity to act in the world. If you can decide, if you can act, you have agency.

Life without agency would be a nightmare. Trapped in a box, unable to do anything by choice, nothing but a puppet...

Why then, do organizations and individuals struggle so intently to avoid the responsibility that comes with agency? "It's not my job, my boss won't let me, there's a federal regulation, we're prohibited, it's our supplier, that's our policy..."

It's not something you can turn on or off. Either you have the capacity to act in the world. Or you don't.

Related Articles
  Get the best out of your PR agency
  Selecting the Top Advertising Agency for your Business Depends on the Metrics you Measure
  Selecting The Right Advertising Agency Is Dependent On Access To A Comprehensive Agency Register
  Mistakes Clients Make When Choosing an Agency
  Recourse and Non-Recourse Nurse Staffing Accounts Receivable Factoring: What’s the Difference?
  5 Factors to Set your Digital Agency Apart From The Rest 
  Is Home Care Funding Right For Your Private Duty Agency?
  Employers: What is a professional recruitment service?
  Becoming a Travel Agent from Home is Easy when Working with a Host Travel Agency
  Developing Agency Solutions to Increasingly Complex Marketing Requirements
  Alternative Financing Options - Home Health Care Factoring
  Employers: Taking on agency workers for the first time!
  Legal Marketing: 5 tips to help you find a marketing partner
  Healthcare Staffing Factoring Works For Agency Owners
  Success principle: Treat everybody respectfully
  How Can Medical Staffing Payroll Factoring Help My Agency?
  Digital Agency: The Modern Business of Today
  Lesson #3: Promote the Principle of Professional Discipline
  YOUR AGENCY...IS IT TIME FOR A CHANGE?
  Three Reasons Why Allied Health Staffing Agencies Should Factor Their Invoices

Article Tags: boss, div, federal regulation, job, lawyers, nightmare, philosphers, puppet



Related Forum Posts
Global Ad Agency Seeks Senior Sales Account Executive - Global Ad Agency -- We are seeking experienced advertising Senior Sales Account Executives to join our growing sales force in New York office. ICMediaDirect.com, Inc is a Full Service Online Advertising Agency driven by a united goal to provide both online as well as offline advertisers with easy and affordable ways to plan and buy media online. We are proud to present an impressive roster of over 300 satisfied clients and a wide reach of billions of visitors each month. With two great locations - N.Y. and D.C. - we know how to PLAN your media, how to BUY your media, how to TRACK your media and how to CAPITALIZE your media. Qualifications • Minimum 2 years of active ONLINE advertising sales experience • Responsible and aggressive attitude • Successful track record with ONLINE sales • Understanding Internet advertising vehicles such as pops, banners, search and lead generation is required • Excellent communication and presentation skills • Strong computer skills are required • Detail oriented and well-organized • Ability to work independently • Enthusiastic team player The Best office location in the city! Competitive salary (plus commission), bonuses and benefits. Please send your resume with salary expectations today at jobs@icmediadirect.com!
Re: Global Ad Agency Seeks Senior Sales Account Executive - [quote="RobertGresch":1lt645d1]Global Ad Agency -- We are seeking experienced advertising Senior Sales Account Executives to join our growing sales force in New York office. ICMediaDirect.com, Inc is a Full Service Online Advertising Agency driven by a united goal to provide both online as well as offline advertisers with easy and affordable ways to plan and buy media online. We are proud to present an impressive roster of over 300 satisfied clients and a wide reach of billions of visitors each month. With two great locations - N.Y. and D.C. - we know how to PLAN your media, how to BUY your media, how to TRACK your media and how to CAPITALIZE your media. Qualifications • Minimum 2 years of active ONLINE advertising sales experience • Responsible and aggressive attitude • Successful track record with ONLINE sales • Understanding Internet advertising vehicles such as pops, banners, search and lead generation is required • Excellent communication and presentation skills • Strong computer skills are required • Detail oriented and well-organized • Ability to work independently • Enthusiastic team player The Best office location in the city! Competitive salary (plus commission), bonuses and benefits. Please send your resume with salary expectations today at jobs@icmediadirect.com![/quote:1lt645d1] Hi Robert, Welcome to our forums! Have you had any luck in your search for this job candidate and can I ask what other sites you've used to advertise this position?
What the Better Business Bureau does - [quote:1urk8etq]There is such a diversity of businesses out there, how effetive are they in protecting the consumers or entrepreneurs[/quote:1urk8etq] The way I understad it, at least here in the US, every BBB chapterhas a website, and on that website is a list of companies who have had complaints about them. People trying to decide if they want to use a company check that list...and if there's no complaints.... That's why it's imperative for people who have been ripped off to complain to their BBB. It might not help them, but it will help other people down the line. On the other hand, people do sometimes maliciously make complaints about businesses - so I tink the BBB does talk to both sides to see what's what... In addition to the BBB, each state has its own Consumer Protection Agency, and they also inspect claims of wrongdoing.
Happy Worker as of Dec 31 2007 - Here's mine... I'm now off to make an offering to the business planning gods for their help in getting to these goals & beyond. To the combined success of Prophets 2 Profits! ----------------------------------------- 1) Corporate a) Retail - Sales reps covering all major markets (1M or more) - Retail product launch plan - 1 more retail release (TBD) b) The Toy Agency - Systems for: o Creative process o Pricing o Manufacturing o Logistics - Marketing agency strategy in place - 1 new customer every 2nd month (5 new customers); 1 of which will be rev of >= 500K/year c) Business - Creative talent pool management strategy & process - Outsourced and/or weekly bookkeeping - Monthly budgeting & forecasting - Better banking organization (Line of Credit, CCs, automate billing for appropriate vendors) - Team total of 5 - Larger office d) Web site - Daily updates - Start of separation of Blog/TTA/Retail 2) Personal - Most weekends “off”! - Entirely separate personal finances; basic personal financing plan - Family….?
Re: What the Better Business Bureau does - [quote="OmnivoreInk":25i6g5su][quote:25i6g5su]There is such a diversity of businesses out there, how effetive are they in protecting the consumers or entrepreneurs[/quote:25i6g5su] The way I understad it, at least here in the US, every BBB chapterhas a website, and on that website is a list of companies who have had complaints about them. People trying to decide if they want to use a company check that list...and if there's no complaints.... That's why it's imperative for people who have been ripped off to complain to their BBB. It might not help them, but it will help other people down the line. On the other hand, people do sometimes maliciously make complaints about businesses - so I tink the BBB does talk to both sides to see what's what... In addition to the BBB, each state has its own Consumer Protection Agency, and they also inspect claims of wrongdoing.[/quote:25i6g5su] While I was managing a home improvement business, we joined the BBB. They got our file entered in the computer wrong and ended up posting 3 major complaints against us. They were actually for a different company that wasn't related and that wasn't even similar in any way. That caused me a mountain of problems and cost us several big dollar jobs. Eventually they bothered to speak with us - it took about 4 months to fix the problem. That was 4 months after I found out about it. They didn't offer a refund for the months that we had a negative rating, only fixed the problem after I spent many hours pushing them to fix it and they had the nerve to push me to renew my membership. Needless to say, I haven't joined the BBB again. And, they charged me decent money to be a member. Shri


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Why Small Businesses Don't Survive

The Basics Of A Home Based Internet Business

What To Do With a Troublemaker?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.