[Leica] Erwins last comments on the marketing experts

[Aubin <aubin@aa.net>]

Hi Erwin,

lovely posting.  I have to laugh, there are a whole lot of experts out there
when it comes to telling other people how to run their own multi-million
dollar international business.  As a Boeing employee I hear it all the time 
from people who just know they're a lot better at designing and marketing
airplanes.

Its okay, they do care.  They wouldn't make so much noise and get so 
involved if they didn't, and you have to respect that fervor.  I used to think 
that I knew it all too, then as I got more involved in managing things, I 
found out that there were ten things going on for everything I knew about.

Every one of those things involved more resources, affected more parts of the 
company, and had more impact then the stuff I knew about.  I discovered that
a lot of those folks got there by knowing more than me about those things, 
and that I could learn a lot by listening and watching, for the long haul and 
not just for a few months.  So I learned patience: nothing worthwhile happens
in a day or a year.  I can wait. Leica has been around for decades, they have 
a few clues about the market they are in, they know their customer base
far better than it knows itself, and I expect them to do the best they can.

Besides, they could go away right now, and I'd still have the best glass and 
cameras in the world.  If someone then surpassed them, I'd switch.  Its just 
a tool, not a relationship.  I think getting emotionally involved with my tools is
something I will manage to do without.

Erwin, once more let me thank you for your contributions.  You continue to shine
an amazingly clear and bright light into this place, and its you and the rest of the 
photographers here who make this a good place to be.

The noise doesn't bother me, I'm originally from New York, have learned to 
sleep on the subways when I had to, learned to sleep with gunfire around me,
and I have a very good delete key.  Let 'em squawk: me I don't pay them no never
mind . .whoever they are. 

later -

Norm

p.s. - the rest of you out there . . .get off your lazy butts and get a copy of Ted's 
book, you ain't never seen the likes!  My wife took it to the OR on Friday and 
the surgeons and the nurses were all over it like white on rice.  They were seeing
themselves, seeing people they know, or just exhilarating in the fact that 
no one has ever caught them and what they do so well.  Not even the same
hospital but still the pictures captured the essence so well; they immediately 
identified with every shot.  Every shot.  Do yourself the favor of seeing what 
Leica is about.  Do yourself the favor of seeing why you need to listen to this 
man when he speaks.

N