John Denver karaoke sparks Thai Killing Spree

September 2nd, 2010

I awoke early this morning to find out that one of my favorite
singers had supposedly caused a killing spree.

The headline read:  “John Denver karaoke sparks Thai Killing Spree”.

It seems that in Thailand, John Denver’s “Country Roads” is an
immensely popular tune, and is very popular to sing again and
again in the karaoke parties and bars.  People who are on the
other side of the world, far far away from the mountains of
West Virginia are singing their hearts out to a tune sung by
a happy go lucky guy from middle America.

However one guy in Thailand did not share the same feelings
for John Denver, and finally had enough.

He warned his neighbors that if they kept singing their karaoke
– John Denver songs in particular – he would come down and blow
their heads off.

Hearing another lofty round of “Country Roads, take me home…”
he made good on the promise, walking down to his neighbors
house, and started shooting.  The rest is pretty gruesome.

There’s something to be learned from this strange and
unfortunate act.  Its about the power of passion.

And how it can cut both ways.

Passion is super important to instill in your customers.

And something that can be used again and again in your marketing.

It’s vitally important to instill passion in your customers.
And in fact, you don’t really want customers.
You want rabid, raving fans.  A worldwide fan base of rabid
followers, who will sing your tune to others, even when faced
with threats.

John Denver in the 1970s had all of these.

He was a cheesy down home guy with a positive, unwavering joy,
singing songs about nature and love.

Here’s a guy who was screaming “far out” long after it was cool
to do so.  And here’s a guy who was so loved by his fans that
he ended up selling out arena after arena, eventually even
having his own weekly show, singing with the Muppets, and
becoming a movie star.

And it all started with his own passion, playing his few songs
with a guitar.

By sharing this passion and joy with others, he became world
famous and got to share his talents with people worldwide, becoming
quite wealthy in the process.

But just because you create a huge group of stark raving mad fans,
doesn’t mean that you don’t create some enemies along the way.

For every person who I know that loves John Denver, I know
another who can’t stand the guy.

Including the crazy guy in Thailand.

To be successful, and instill passion in your fans, you have to
make a few enemies along the way.

In fact, if you haven’t made a few people mad along the way, you
probably aren’t instilling passion in anybody at all.

So be brave, and be yourself, and bring your passion to the table.

Don’t be afraid to break a couple eggs along the way to
making an omelet.

And when you do make the occasional enemy, make sure you stand
up, pat yourself on the back, and do what John Denver would do.
Stand up and yell “far out!”.

Until next time,
-Wally

P.S. – It’s really easy to bring your passion to the web every
day when you have your own Search Engine Optimized blog.
It’s the fastest way to get your unique voice out to the
entire world and build your rabid following.

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