Hope

I just read this job description from Seth Godin and it made me think about hope

What marketers actually sell
Not powder or chemicals or rubber or steel or silicon or talk or installations or even sugary water.
What marketers sell is hope.
The reason is simple: people need more. We run out. We need it replenished. Hope is almost always in short supply.
The magical thing about selling hope is that it makes everything else work better, every day get better, every project work better, every relationship feel better. If you can actually deliver on the hope you sell, there will be a line out the door.
Hope cures cynicism. Hope increases productivity. Hope needs no justification.

Maybe it's because today is the day that Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, or maybe it's because it was Martin Luther King Jr. day yesterday, or maybe it's because we are feeling anxious about the wars going on the world and the economic crunch that makes our collective stomachs clench, or maybe because the winter days feel like they are getting longer and that spring is just beyond your finger tips away...

...whatever it is, hope feels very ripe today. It's in the air. People are looking for meaning in what they do, how they spend their time and money, what their existence is meant to be, who they choose to be with, what they do with themselves, what they want.

People are looking for hope and, I think, are much more receptive to hope. To smiles. To friendships. To opening themselves up to living life and all the beautiful things that come with embracing the moment.