I had supper with Seth Godin last night. Well...OK...He was on
TEDTalks and I was in my living room, but we were both there and I was eating supper. I like Seth. He disrupts my thinking and I'm perversely drawn to disruptive people.
We all need our thinking disrupted from time to time. Whether we're
entrepreneurs embarking on a new dream project, activists working to
move a mountain in our little corner of reality, stealth change agents
embedded in a huge organization, or ordinary people just trying to be
excellent in world bent on mediocrity, it's a sure bet we can't get the
job done alone. Nor should we try. If we want our product or idea to
spread, we need to connect with people who speak a common language and
share a common passion.
Ideas don't go viral because they reached the largest number of
individuals possible. They go viral because they reach the right
communities. The rest are a waste of time. For the most part, generic
idea sellers would find me to be a waste of time if they were paying
attention. I screen my calls, go directly from my mailbox to the
trashcan (physically and digitally), and whenever possible restrict my
binge-watching to Netflix because they don't have ads. I can't remember
the last time I bought something or changed my mind because of an ad.
Or a Facebook meme. Most Americans have become experts at the art of
not listening.
We need to stop trying to "market" our ideas to the greatest number of
people and really connect with the people who are as crazy as we are.
We want our audience to stop being an audience and start being
collaborators. To feel the same passion that we do. And then engage.
But information doesn't produce passion. Passion does! And the only
way to ignite passion is to be authentic. Then give permission to your
"tribe" to catch fire!
