Influence Doesn't Chase Attention

Dan Wieden created the most valuable slogan in advertising history. 

He took convicted murderer Gary Gilmore's last words before execution ("Let's do it") and transformed them into cultural bedrock. 

"Just Do It" built Nike into a $50 billion empire. 

But most people wearing Nike right now have never heard Dan's name.

That's real influence.

While personal brand "experts" chase likes and retweets, someone is writing the next phrase that will echo through culture for decades. While growth hackers optimize for engagement, somewhere, a designer is painstakingly tweaking an icon that will become universal shorthand. A writer is penning a story that will shape how millions view themselves. A filmmaker is capturing a moment that will define a generation.

We've confused attention with impact. We've built an entire industry around measuring the wrong things. We track followers instead of looking for resonance. We count impressions instead of impressions made. We optimize for algorithms when we should optimize for memory. 

That's how Netflix keeps fumbling its cultural moment; its short-sighted, data-obsessed executives cancel shows based on eyeballs in 24 hours and miss the opportunity to leave any lasting mark. 

Impact doesn't announce itself. It seeps into consciousness. It rewires how people think. "1984" wasn't a Super Bowl ad—it was a revolution in how we view technology's relationship with humanity. "Think Different" changed how a generation viewed Apple. "Got Milk?" transformed a commodity into a cultural touchstone. "The Most Interesting Man in the World" rewrote the rules of persona marketing. Their creators didn't need millions of followers. They needed one perfect insight.

The people who shape how we think, talk, and act are happy to operate in the background. They don't write self-obsessed threads about creativity—they create. They don't humble-brag about innovation—they innovate. Their work spreads through culture on its own power, not through thirst traps and false virality. 

This is the arbitrage hiding in plain sight: Everyone else fights to be seen, but the real opportunity is in creating work worth seeing. Distribution matters, but you still need something worth distributing.

The market rewards the originators, not just the amplifiers. A single breakthrough creative idea generates more value than a decade of personal brand building. 

One perfect phrase echoes longer than a lifetime of posts.

Want proof? Just do it.