If you work in the world of services marketing, Seth Godin’s blog is a must-read. It’s full of the sort of everyday observations that many marketers overlook from their insider perspective. It is a collection of posts about the forest, so to speak, not the trees.

One of his latest posts, “The Blind Squirrel Problem” retells his observation in a local store recently when a shabby student walked in aimlessly looking for a summer job. The store’s owner politely turned him down and Seth watched as the young man “headed across the street to more rejection at the drug store.”

Presentation – be it an ad in Times Square, a business card, a website, or an interview suit — is crucial to success. In marketing we often say “perception is reality.” Without adequate preparation, the perception is never going to be what we want it to be. Without stopping to check our plan against reality, we risk perpetually being a blind squirrel.

Seth concludes his parable with a word to the wise:

“Even a summer job is 400 or more hours of work. I wonder why he didn’t bother to invest three hours in advance, looking for a job worth doing?”