Your Product Needs a Soul

"Even with its limited use in actual warfare, the katana was the most valuable possession of a samurai, the customer." reminded me of a quote by Fred Brooks (of author of Mythical Man Month):

   "A toolmaker succeeds as, and only as, the users of his tool succeed with his aid. 
   However shining the blade, however jeweled the hilt, however perfect the heft, 
   a sword is tested only by cutting. That sword-smith is successful whose clients 
   die of old age."

A similar but a bit less abstract post from Seth Godin: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/02/the-brand-th...

I'm sure there's a great insight in that article somewhere, but I stopped reading as soon as I spotted the words "soul", "katana" and "zen". It's just more cliché than I can bear.