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Let me ask you this one question: Have you ever seen a UPS truck broken down on the side of the road or in a junk yard?

I for one have never seen a broken down UPS truck and probably for good reason. As it turns out, UPS and its competition would never want to be branded as the company that can’t deliver on time due to faulty equipment. Besides maintaining all of its vehicles regularly, UPS goes to great lengths to ensure you never see one of its trucks “broken.” If one were to break down on the side of the road for any reason, the cargo is immediately swapped from one truck to another, making sure to get all packages to their destination on time. Shortly there after, the truck is carted away to a mechanic.

If the broken UPS truck is no longer valuable to the company or needs to be destroyed, it is altered. UPS goes through the process of repainting and re-branding the original truck so that by the time it is done, the only similarity is the shape. For this reason, you will never see one in the junk yard. I wonder if UPS makes them look like FedEx before carting them off…ha… anyways.

Each of these companies has a huge image and brand to protect. It is so big and so important that they will go to the lengths or repainting a totaled delivery truck so people will never see that there was something wrong with their brand or that it was unreliable somehow.

Branding is a very important aspect of business. Visitors to your site or business can either promote your brand or they can trash it. When you are about to add that new advertising or start a new marketing campaign, make sure you think about the effects that it could have on your brand. Don’t let your customers see your brand if it breaks.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” -Warren Buffet

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Last year I spent a lot of time working on a business plan involving ebooks. I can’t say that the plan is completely shelved, but it is definitely on hold. Inspired by Timothy Ferriss’s book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich to contact a famous person, I did. Around Christmas time I wrote Warren Buffett a simple letter. I also included a stamped postcard with my address on it.

Dear Mr. Buffett,

My name is Josh Whitford, and I live in Fargo, ND. I am looking for a bit of advice. There are few things I know better than the fact that I truly do not know much. I do not seek knowledge but rather wisdom. I admire the foresight you have that has led to your success as a person. I would like to know what single piece of wisdom you would offer to someone you have never met.

Sincerely,

Josh Whitford

seasons greetings

A couple weeks later I received my postcard in the mail. The response was “Read, read, read” and nothing more. I do enjoy reading compared to the majority of Americans who only read 1 book a year. I guess you could say that I read 1200% more than the average American. If you haven’t read lately, feel free to pick up a book, cozy up on your recliner, crack the spine (of the book that is) and enjoy.

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