Recently this past weekend I was standing at my open balcony doors (the weather was truly wonderful) and I was admiring the sunset and the beauty of the river and road below when I was struck by a most interesting thought. I want to try and share it with you, so forgive me if something is lost along the way or I don’t make perfect sense. I hope the thought will be conveyed.

Snapshot

Here’s what I saw as I gazed out into the world. (And yes, I think it’s an unusual occurrence and one I haven’t actually witnessed before.) On the river, were several people in kayaks, a rowing team out for an evening practice run. Joggers on the running path around the park, several cyclists in full gear pedaling along the edge in tight single line formation, a handful of cars waiting to turn at the intersection while a motorcycle sped through the exchange, pedestrians pushing strollers, the MBTA (“T”) Orange line rumbling northbound, while the purple commuter rail clattered past at twice the speed, and a airplane droned overhead as it pulled away from Boston Logan International airport headed for some unknown distant destination.

It sounds crushing, and a little chaotic, but this is not the picture I want to paint for you. Yes, there was certainly a lot going on, but the noise was not unbearable, the scene not one of pandemonium. As a matter of fact everything moved seamlessly and with a sense of elegant precision.

Progress

What I really hope you see in this microcosm is something truly phenomenal. Here captured in within my gaze was a snapshot of the evolution of transportation over the past 200 years. Did you catch them all? I’m sure you did as it was quite the overwhelming paragraph. We had everything from walkers, runners, bicyclists, motorcycles, cars, boats, trains, and airplanes.

Insight

My immediate first thought was as I’m sure yours might be too — wow, we have certainly progressed quite a long way in our mobility and mechanism by which we get from point A to point B. What a wide variety of methods and each one seemingly more advanced, and more technologically improved than the last. What a testament to our achievements as a human race and our ability to create and to innovate!

But wait, as I said this was my immediate thought. And it was after this thought that the truly interesting idea began to form. We have all these advancements, the ability to travel literally around the world. And we have an incredible opportunity to not only travel from point A to point B but to do so swiftly. And yet, we don’t travel via airplane everywhere. Clearly airplanes are the fastest means of transportation (in the scene I described earlier). But it’s not the most practical. Similarly, we don’t necessarily always jump on a train, or into a car for every jaunt outside. There’s a reason for this. We use the most practical method for the journey.

Each mode of transportation has different benefits and different reasons which make it an acceptable (and still widely used) method for moving from where you are to where you want to be.

Specifically, you’re not going to hop in an airplane to get from your house to the local grocery store (any more than you would get in a car to go through the park). Or to put it a different way, the time it takes to lace up your skates versus the time it takes to just walk from your front door to the mailbox might make the skates equally impractical. It’s not always about speed in the context of the vehicle, but in the context of the situation.

Application

I apologize for this part of the post but this is something I can’t seem to stop myself from doing: applying these ideas to other areas of life. In fact, I think this is partly due to my instinct to focus on core principles.

Marketing software is evolving at an increasingly rapid pace. The space is growing in complexity and advancing in technology all the time. But speed isn’t everything and the latest technological improvements aren’t always the right choice. Instead, just as with our chosen method of transit — we should use the most practical method for the specific journey.

So the next time you’re evaluating a marketing platform, or a marketing tool, make sure you’re considering the journey you’re on and the most practical way in which you should get there.