Crush or be Crushed

I recently had the pleasure of serving as a final round judge for the Canadian Marketing League's annual case competition.

And the "crush it" banner on display (below) really struck a chord with me.

"You're going to crush it. Or be crushed. Either way, you'll learn."

It was certainly appropriate for the day: nine student teams gave it their all as they tried to address a REALLY difficult case. 

(The ask? Students were to develop an integrated B2B marketing campaign to encourage existing Microsoft customers to use the already-installed Microsoft CoPilot in their everyday work tasks. Now, be honest: has YOUR organization figured out how to effectively integrate AI into your daily workstreams? Exactly. Like I said, a REALLY difficult case...)

The one-person team that won the $20,000 top prize really crushed it. 

The others? Well, they technically got crushed...

... but not really. 

Because while those teams may not have walked away with a big cheque, they almost certainly learned a thing or two about marketing, AI, effectively presenting to senior executives, and more. 

And over the span of a career, that will likely be worth much more than $20,000.

That's not why the "crush it" banner resonated with me, though.

It's because I saw the banner shortly after I picked up my name badge...

... and my name badge listed me as the Founder of Orbit.

That's the first time I've been listed like that in public. 

I didn't submit that information to anyone at the CML; I was asked to participate as a judge before Orbit even launched. But the organizing team clearly did their homework and looked up all of the judges on LinkedIn.

Orbit serves an incredibly important, unmet need in the market: It exists to help mid-career professionals find a trusted peer advisory group that can help them make better decisions, unlock professional opportunities, and foster personal growth.

But there's no guarantee that Orbit will be a successful business initiative. 

(I'm working hard to make it so, but you know what they say about the only guarantees in life, right?)

In other words, I'm going to crush it... or I'm going to be crushed.

But either way, I'm going to learn a lot. 

And that alone makes the effort worthwhile.

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P.S. If you're a manager, senior manager, or director who's ready to level up your career, you'll definitely want to check out Orbit for yourself.