Seth is a genius. At least in my book… and many many others. I could write so much about the advice I learned from his content and books. I won’t do that to you, but I will highlight a few effective lessons I took from him and I will tell you that you should definitely check out his daily blog and pick up a few of his books. Tribes, Icarus Deception, and The Dip are all phenomenal. And he has A TON more!
Ship It!
This was a big one for me. This was the main subject of one of his daily blog posts a few years ago and at it’s core it’s very simple. We have a tendency to find every reason under the sun why we shouldn’t start something because it won’t be good or we aren’t good enough. We’re even better at finding reasons why we shouldn’t finish if we do in fact start, because it will be crap. And many of us that stay in the fight will get caught up chasing perfection and never actually send the product/content out as we constantly pick apart every detail.
Instead, challenge yourself to just execute one project. Put a timeline one it and no matter what, when you hit the timeline, you ship it. No excuses, no perfection, whether it sucks or not. Just get it out there. By doing this, you will create a habit of following through. It will become easier and easier to complete work AND if it does “suck” you will get immediate feedback on how to improve it… Or even better, get immediate input on who your actual audience is.
When I first read this post, I had been kicking around the idea of writing articles, and like many times before, had talked myself out of it a hundred times. I decided that I would sit down and write for 15 minutes, and no matter what was on the page after 15 minutes, I would immediately post it. No editing, no additions, no exceptions. This simple challenge allowed me to write everyday and helped me to improve my writing. No, not every piece of writing was good, but I got better and better with time. I held that up for quite sometime. I decided, this might be pretty effective with video content as well. So I challenged myself to simply film a recap of a technique or concept we worked in class after each class I taught. No fancy video, no mics, no editing. This lead to us slowly building a library of videos that we can continually recall and building some great content. This also led to us getting better and better on camera, adding in a little simple editing, and improving that product over time.
It’s a very simple idea. Stop the excuses. Stop occupying your time with “busy work.” Identify what you want to do and do it. Simple!
Tribes vs The Masses
The book “Tribes” by Seth is a really fantastic read and again, I highly suggest it. That being said, one concept from that book really stuck out to me. I mean, it’s kind of the entire premise of the book, but none the less it’s a simple concept. Focus on actual interaction and attention from a small group of people instead of chasing the masses. In a world where Social Media dominates almost everyones lives, this is a very important lesson for anyone trying to make an impact. All too often people obsess over who has the most likes and doing everything possible to raise that number. The number of “likes” you have means nothing, if you don’t have actual interaction and attention from them. I could have 10,000 likes on may page, but if I post an article and it only truly impacts 100 people, those thousands of likes mean nothing. Instead of focusing on the masses, focus on your community. Identify your audience. Identify how you can bring value to them. Make that connection and focus on that relationship.
It is better to have a committed tribe of 1,000 then to have the hollow “likes” of one million.
If you nurture that relationship and that concept, that tribe can grow, but never grow the numbers if it means losing that relationship.
In Conclusion
Stop making excuses. Stop trying be perfect. Identify what you want to do and start doing it. Set a deadline. Set it in stone and do it. As you’re doing that focus on actual human interaction and relationships. You will make a bigger impact if you build the trust and sincere attention of people, then you ever will being blindly followed. Take these small steps and start crushing it.
Be good, train hard, stay safe
-aaron
Aaron Jannetti 