When U2 perform a stadium concert, their reach is the entire audience of 60,000 eager fans. As he sings the first note, Bono understands his job is to create an emotional connection with every member of the audience. If the concert goer isn’t changed by the experience, then she might as well have stayed at home and listened to the album on her iPod.

In a commercial world, we spend the majority of our time trying to reach people—often measuring our success by counting the numbers of people who receive our fliers, browse our products or view our pages. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that ‘reach’ is never the end goal. It’s simply the starting point on the road to delivering value and creating an impact.

What’s the real marker of your influence or progress?
Are you investing resources in the things you want to change?

Image by U2 Start