The Rules Have Changed

It’s time to admit we are all in control of our own success. Confidence, perseverance, and passion are the assets of a successful entrepreneur and artist today. Having some undeniable skill never hurt either but confidence (for better or worse) is often a bigger determining factor in ones success than their skill. Justin Bieber, PDiddy.. unfortunate cases in point.

We all get to be humans, and not cogs in the machine. Manufacturing is gone. It is automated. Robots do it. Be happy that you get to invest yourself in your work now instead of mindlessly pushing the same button 1,000 times a day. Embrace it. Find your passion and chase it. Own it.

The stability of our parents and grandparents generation where you could get a degree, buy a house, work for the same company for 40 years and retire is gone. It’s not a sudden change-we’ve been watching this come for a generation. It’s time to own your own safety and stability.

We all have the same voice. Your personal business, your startup, your mom and pop shop can create the same marketing reach, the same buzz as the biggest players because it’s all about connection with your audience now. There is no barrier to entry in the tens of thousands of dollars like there was in the days of Mad Men. The kids in college and younger know this—they’ve grown up knowing this and if those of us who are older than college age (be honest with yourself…????) don’t wake up to this we will get left behind as they flood the work force.

The community you build and your connections makes you more powerful and secure than your boss. If you are known for your skill and personality and people in your community believe in you and your opinions you will always have work and offers for work.

Trust is everything. Brands, personalities, and businesses that are honest and personable—that create a connection with their followers and community will always have more market value than those that don’t. ‘Stuff’ can’t get any cheaper. Sales are not going to drive meaningful market share and revenue growth in the long term anymore. That worked a decade ago but that business model is coming to an end as ‘price’ has blatantly lost any socially responsible value or support.

Do the work. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. You just have to do the work. If you have an idea—tackle it.

Dreams are bullshit that keep you drowning in the mediocrity of the status quo until you take action and make them real and tangible.

 

The reason content is king is because it builds trust in your community and trust is authority. You can’t fake authority—we’ve see the downfalls of that. We can spot it a mile away.

You get to define your client base and your community. You can reach anybody. But you get to decide who that is and hopefully that’s you—the strongest marketing is marketing to yourself, because that’s what you know the best.

You are going to fail. Be prepared for it and realize you will be so much stronger and smarter for it. Don’t try to fail. Don’t use failure as an excuse to not excel at what you’re doing or to halfass your work, but understand that the specter of failure looks worse in the night than it does when the sun comes back up on the morning.

Question the status quo. Charge and attack the world for what you want. There is nothing keeping you from where you want to to be accept your own confidence and ability to grow yourself.

“Quality is the new social proof” Bryan Elliot

Everyone has the ability to start their own business, push their own art out into the world, make their own music, have their own voice. That is both a blessing and a curse. You can start from nowhere and be somewhere tomorrow, but you also need to get above the din.

Trust your gut instincts. They might be horribly wrong… but they might be right. And if they are right—you win the battle.

Sell something people want to buy.

Stay Hungry.