“What do you think it takes to have a successful marriage?” asks my niece. I will call her, “Ariel,” because she deserves a Disney Princess type of name.

Now I have certainly logged some hours ‘noodling’ this puzzle in the past. However, ‘love’ is an impossibly simple, yet impossibly complex subject.

In my marketing work it reminds be of ‘branding.’ I often tell business owners that ‘brand’ is both a ridiculously simple thing and ridiculously hard thing to do properly.

What is at the core of a company should be so simple and when it’s done well a company can be both professionally and financially profitable.

Love is at the core of a marriage and it too, when done well can be grand and emotionally profitable.

If the core is not strong then the day to day operations of a business are what wear it down. The same can be said of a marriage. If not tended to properly, it is the day to day dealings that become the undoing.

Simply put, most businesses do not fail for lack of customers and most marriages do not fail for lack of love.

A few years ago a publisher asked me to submit a business book proposal.

“You won’t like what I submit,” I say to the editor.

“Why?” she responds.

“Business just isn’t that complicated,” I say. “There are several fundamental truths that bind and guide a successful business. As long as you stay loyal and devoted to those truths then the path will become greener. Additionally, most business owners don’t go into business because they are passionate about business. They start their own company because they believe they make the yummiest cupcake, design the best interior or build the greatest house.”

They don’t want to read books laden with heavy business ‘ease.’ For the most part, many do not want to become experts in the field of business. They simply want to become the best at running ‘their’ business.

So what does this mean for the ‘business of love?’

The truth is I spent a lot of time seeing my marital troubles through my heart.

I now see it from a marketing perspective. Love is simple not that complicated. It’s that we get busy and distracted and otherwise engaged and we lose sight of our core. Most couples do not want to log hours in marriage counseling or read expert laden books. They just want their own marriage to thrive.

In the spirit of this complicated thing called, “LOVE,” this is part one of “What it Takes to Make a Successful Marriage.” This marketer is about to attempt to connect the dots. Why????

Because………….

Ariel deserves a real life fairy tale! Doesn’t every great Disney princess?