Dyke Drummond had an interesting quote in a comment to my list of entrepreneurship traits post last week:

And I agree about EMPATHY. I think it is a very underused term because people think it is “Soft” … and it is the core of any successful marketing campaign. You must be able to put yourself into the shoes of your prospect.

Me, I’m soft, and that’s good.

In a world that people like to divide into techie vs. fuzzy, I like fuzzy. You could call that liberal arts vs. science and engineering, if you’d like. I don’t care, because, after all, I’m a fuzzy.

In response to my confusing numbers with truth post last week, Kevin McNulty said:

I disagree: data is by definition a body of facts. Misrepresenting data or drawing poor conclusions is the problem.

And I disagreed back: Data is not necessarily facts. “Misrepresenting data and drawing poor conclusions” is commonplace, more the rule than the exception. It’s built into misunderstanding people, stories, truth, and uncertainty. Truth is in stories, not facts; and much less research.

And empathy leads to success way more often than research, data, or facts. Stay soft. It’s good for business.