Seth's Blog : The originality paradox



The originality paradox

There are a billion people trying to do something important for the first time. These people are connected by the net, posting, creating, daring to leap first.

It's hard, because the number of people racing with you to be original is huge.

The numbers are so daunting that the chances that you will create something that resonates, spreads and changes the culture are really close to zero.

But it's also certain that someone will. In fact, there's a 100% chance that someone will step up with an action or a concept so daring that it resonates with us.

Nearly zero and certain. At the same time.

Pick your odds, decide what you care about and act accordingly.

       

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More Recent Articles

• Beware the gulf of disapproval
• Pretty, cheap and well-rounded (three misunderstandings)
• Transitions
• There is more than one solution to your problem (and your problem is real)
• Breakpoints

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Seth's Blog : Beware the gulf of disapproval



Beware the gulf of disapproval

As your new idea spreads, most people who hear about it will dislike it.

               (click to enlarge)

Start at the left. Your new idea, your proposal to the company, your new venture, your innovation—no one knows about it.

As you begin to promote it, most of the people (the red line) who hear about it don't get it. They think it's a risky scheme, a solution to a problem no one has or that it's too expensive. Or some combination of the three.

And this is where it would stop, except for the few people on the blue line. These are the early adopters, the believers, and some of them are sneezers. They tell everyone they can about your new idea.

Here's the dangerous moment. If you're keeping track of all the people who hate what you've done, you'll give up right here and right now. This is when the gulf of disapproval is at its maximum. This happened to the telephone, to the web, to rap music... lots of people have heard of it, but the number of new fans (the blue line) is far smaller than the number of well-meaning (but in this case, wrong) people on the red line.

Sometimes, if you persist, the value created for the folks on the blue line begins to compound. And so your fans persist and one by one, convert some of the disapproving. Person by person, they shift from being skeptics to accepting the new status quo.

When the gulf of disapproval comes, don't track the red line. Count on the blue one instead.

       

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More Recent Articles

• Pretty, cheap and well-rounded (three misunderstandings)
• Transitions
• There is more than one solution to your problem (and your problem is real)
• Breakpoints
• More than ten is too many

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Seth's Blog : Pretty, cheap and well-rounded (three misunderstandings)



Pretty, cheap and well-rounded (three misunderstandings)

It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking you need to be prettier if you want to be an actor or actress. It turns out, though, that most important thespians aren't conventionally pretty (Marlon Brando, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Geena Davis, Morgan Freeman...)

It's easy for a retailer or a freelancer to believe that the best way to succeed is to be cheap. But just about every important brand (and every successful freelancer) didn't get that way by being the cheapest.

And anyone who has been through high school has been reminded how important it is to be well-rounded. But Nobel Prize winners, successful NGO founders and just about everyone you admire didn't get that way by being mediocre at a lot of things.

Pretty, cheap and well-rounded are seductive ways to hide out in a crowd. But they're not the path to doing work that matters.

       

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More Recent Articles

• Transitions
• There is more than one solution to your problem (and your problem is real)
• Breakpoints
• More than ten is too many
• Metaphors aren't true

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