Most formulas for success depend on hidden variables, such as who you are, what your business does, what your target market is, which decision-makers matter most, and what you actually have to say. More often than not, people are promoting success formulas that worked for them, and then cherry-picking examples that imply favorable outcomes.
That’s not to say that there’s nothing for you to learn from them, or that they are all selling snake oil. It’s just to remind you that all the “how” in the world doesn’t matter when it’s not connected to “what” and “why.” You get better results if you think carefully about whether that “how” is really relevant to your strategy—at a minimum.
Even better, work with people who will help you do the hard work of clarifying your strategy, only then developing a formula for tactics that make sense. People who help you figure out how to define those hidden variables and build a formula that takes them into account will help you arrive at better outcomes.
