Einstein's Credo

A Sense of the Mysterious
One of Albert Einstein’s special gifts was his ability to think in images. As a theoretical physicist, he could resolve an equation with his mind’s eye. Whether he was running alongside a shooting light beam or watching a pebble leave the window of a speeding train, he visualized the world around him with his imagination…which he felt was more important than his vast knowledge.

One of Einstein’s greatest truths relevant to marketers was not his theory about relativity or light quanta, but an inauspicious comment he made about his deep sense of the mysterious in response to the question; “Do you believe in God.” I copy the last paragraph of his response (his Credo) below.

Einstein’s Credo (conclusion only)

The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious. It is the underlying principle of religion as well as of all serious endeavor in art and science. He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimely reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all there is.

From the greatest mind of the 20th Century, I've learned that if we can, just once, give our customers a sense of their belonging to a greater world and attach with it a greater purpose that adds richness to their lives, we will have created something in them as powerful as religious feelings.

Excellent marketers tell the stories and capture the images that resolve complex problems, improving the lives of their prospects and customers. As marketers, sometimes we are fortunate enough to have a life-changing product to market. More than likely though, we must find the “mysterious truth” about average products and present them artfully, engaging the emotion while demonstrating their utility.

I was sitting in a Starbucks today in Hudson Ohio sipping my tall drip coffee with cream. I couldn’t help but watch a steady stream of loyal patrons strolling in one by one to be engaged emotionally! Sure, there is a certain utility to a shot of caffeine in the middle of the morning but after the purchase, I observed the real reason for their pilgrimage---small pockets of people engaged in meaningful conversation and fellowship. The coffee was secondary, just a compliment to the rich depth of meaning that Starbucks was adding to their lives through community and mutual interests.

Like that great physicist, I’m going to convert my Starbuck’s experience into a mental image, add a shot of Einstein’s inspiration, and reverse engineer a few brand messages with great visuals and relevant prose. Who knows, I might just be able to help a customer be more like one of the fastest moving brands in the universe!