“10 Commandments of Biz”

The 10 commandements were about doing business a different way. One that was designed to lead to not just a great career that changed lives, but to the ability to love the work you do in the world, the business you aspire to build and the life you want to live.

And, in the context of the Annual Report, it was a bit of a parting bonus gift, a quick little slice of fun to leave you thinking about how you bring yourself to the world.

While the entire Annual Report took off online (more on that soon, still humbled and grateful, btw), the 10 commandments, themselves, got quite a bit of feedback, and I had a bunch of requests to release them as a standalone graphic to share.

So, for those who missed it and those who asked for it, here ya go…

Because…

Business ain’t just about business, it’s about life!

I recently had the chance to interview my friend and Money Magazine’s Online Career Expert of the Year, Alexandra Levit, about something she calls career blind spots and the book she just released on the topic by the same name. Here’s what unfolded…

In Blind Spots, you explore the ten biggest myths of business success.  What made you decide to write this book?

I decided to write Blind Spots because I was tired of reading silly theories and platitudes dispensed by business and career authors who sell their work by giving these myths credibility and by telling readers what they want to hear.  I wanted to be honest with people about what will render them successful in today’s business world, not yesterday’s.  I wanted something out there other than overly provocative advice that hasn’t worked for anyone I know, like quitting your job tomorrow and starting your own business the next day, or marching into your boss’ office and announcing that he should appreciate your individuality.

What’s your favorite myth and why?

I have personally experienced most of the book’s myths myself, so they are all favorites in a way.  But overnight success is the first myth I debunk in the book because it’s one of the most widely held beliefs.  It’s also hugely misleading, and adopting this idea that you can easily become an overnight success could actually be quite damaging for your career and life.  The truth is simple.  There are very few – if any – genuine cases of overnight success. The majority of successful people have dedicated themselves to a goal and persevered for a long time, experiencing several setbacks before reaching a high level of achievement that is finally noticed and talked about by others.

What do you see as the greatest obstacle facing employees over the next 1-2 years

The greatest obstacle is finding meaning in their work – up to 80% of the employed are currently unhappy with their jobs.  This dissatisfaction can be an opportunity because it prompts you to take action to learn a new skill or take on a new project through your job or volunteer work.  People have to remember that finding one’s passion takes time and a lot of exploration, and you have to be motivated to undertake that journey.

You say that your goal is to help people hone their positive traits like authenticity, perseverance, and self-awareness.  What’s the first step to take in this regard?

The first step is to recognize what you don’t know, and where you can improve.  A lot of what it takes to be successful is already a part of who you are, and with a little self-reflection and the course-correcting offered in Blind Spots, you absolutely have the power to cultivate the skills and attitude that will take you wherever you want to go.

What is your best advice for prospective entrepreneurs?

If you want to start a company, the motivation fueled by being bored with your work or hating your boss won’t be enough.  You’ll have to think hard about the marketplace need your product or service addresses and be prepared to work at a variety of tasks to bring it to fruition.  Also, you’ll want to really consider whether the entrepreneurial lifestyle will work for you personally, as it requires a certain type of personality and mindset.

If all the platitudes are wrong, then why do people keep writing them and why do other people keep buying into them?

An incredible overnight success story (for example) is rare, but very sexy, and like an urban legend, it is easily talked about and passed down. And people love to consume these stories because it’s like thinking they might win the lottery. They figure that the rare scenario has to happen to someone, even though they know deep down it probably won’t be them.

The title of your book – Blind Spots – literally means something that’s in front of your face, but you cannot see it. What can we do to better see what’s in front of us on a daily basis?

We can pay more attention to the immediate and long-term results of our attitudes and behavior, and pick up on cues from other people. And when the cues are too subtle, we can ask for more feedback outright. It’s scary to come face-to-face with our own flaws, but this is the only way to improve and grow and rid ourselves of troublesome blind spots.

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[FTC Disclosure - You should always assume that pretty much every link on this blog is an affiliate link and that if you click it, find something you like and buy it, I'm gonna make some serious money. Now, understand this, I'm not talking chump change, I'm talking huge windfall in commissions, bling up the wazoo and all sorts of other free stuff. I may even be given a mansion and a yacht, though honestly I'd settle most of the time for some organic dark chocolate and clean socks. Oh, and if I mention a book or some other product, just assume I got a review copy of it gratis and that me getting it has completely biased everything I say. Because, books are like a drug to me, put one in my hand and you own my ass. Ethics be damned! K, you've been warned. Huggies and butterflies. ]

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I’ve been having a business identity crisis lately.

For the last several years, I’ve been sharing the intimate details of my family’s life and finances on my blog.

What started as an online accountability journal has blossomed into a full-time business with the potential to reach tens of thousands of readers. I’ve been extremely fortunate and undeniably blessed.

But I’m far from perfect, and recently I’ve been terrified.

Terrified of what the next step looks like.

Terrified that the next step will be the one the locks me in.

Over the years, I’ve realized that I can help change people’s lives in a couple different areas.

I can show people how to break free from financial lives that keep them trapped. I can teach people how to sell their crap and eliminate their excess clutter. And I can train people on how to grow online communities to raise awareness for their messages or businesses.

I’ve accomplished the first step many creatives struggle with. I know what specific problems I can solve quickly for people.

I know exactly where and how I can change lives.

But I’m still afraid.

I’ve had a couple book proposals outlined for well over a year. I have the connections, the market, and the ideas. But I’ve not written a single sentence of a single page.

Why?

I’m scared of being pigeon-holed into a specific topic or niche.

I’m scared of writing the personal finance book and being labeled a finance guru.

I’m scared of training people how to spread their messages online and being labeled a sell out.

I’m scared to spend months recording a video course and having people label me a douchey internet marketer.

*****

But you know what I realized?

Labels suck.

More specifically, spending my time running from hypothetical labels sucks.

I decide what happens next. I decide which labels stick and which don’t.

And until I take action, people wait.

I can change people’s lives, but not while hiding in a dark corner of the room.

Nothing changes… nothing evolves… until I suck it up and ship my best work.

There will always be something to be afraid of. There will always be a label waiting for me.

When they tell the story of my life, I’m not content with being a “good man who worked hard.”

I want to look back at my body of creative work and be proud.

I want to look back and see that I’ve improved the lives of the people I came in contact with.

I want to leave a legacy.

*****

Like me, you have a choice.

You can choose to wait. Or you can choose to start building.

I’m done stalling. I’m tired of waiting.

I’m ready to put the best of myself out into the world.

Are you?

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Adam Baker is the founder of Man Vs. Debt and the creator of  You Vs Debt, a 6-week online course designed to empower your battle against debt.

You cannot see the world differently if it’s already been seen in every possible way. You cannot solve a problem better if every solution has already been defined. You cannot create great art if every way to stroke a canvas, connect a note, or grace a stage has already been inventoried, categorized, and laid bare for all to see.

If everything is known and certain, that means it’s all been done before. And creation isn’t about repetition.

Genius always starts with a question, not an answer.

Eliminate the question and you eliminate the possibility of genius. However, that’s where things get really sticky.

For all but a rare few, “living in the question” hurts. It causes anxiety, fear, suffering, and pain. And people don’t like pain. Rather than lean into it, we do everything possible to snuff it out. Not because we have to, but because we can’t handle the discomfort that we assume “has to” go along with the quest.

Snuffing out uncertainty leads to a sea of prematurely terminated mediocre output, when “sweet mother of God” was just over the hump if only we’d had the will to embrace uncertainty, risk, and judgment and hang on a bit longer. If only we’d learned how to harness and ride rather than hunt and kill the butterflies that live in the gut of every person who strives to create something extraordinary from nothing.

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The above was excerpted from Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt Into Fuel for Brilliance.

Curious, how do you deal with the butterflies?

Then, last week, I announced a mad-cool 3-book pre-order bundle and a whole lotta people took advantage of the offer.

But, then I got a lot of emails from others saying:

“I’d love to be able to pre-order 3-copies of Uncertainty and give two to friends, but I’m a bit short on change these days. Any chance you could do something special for me if I pre-ordered a single book?”

Short answer…YES! Not only that, I’ve created a bunch of new bundles, give-aways and just posted the first two chapters to read.

Download the Intro & first chapter now.

You can now read the introduction and first chapter of Uncertainty. You don’t need to give me an email or anything. It’s available as an instant PDF download. So, go check it out, read it and share it around. Click on the download link to the right of the video here.

1-Book Pre-Order Experience.

One key element of the 3-book bundle I announced last week was a 6-week training with me. Every week, once a week for 6 weeks, starting around October 15th, you and I will come together on a live conference-line (or webcast for those who prefer it). I will take you deeper into six key areas in the book, explore the strategies and practices on a real-life/implementation level, share updated research with you and spend as much time as I can answering your questions.

What’s the value of something like that? Well, an hour Skype Borrow My Brain consult with me these days starts at $1,000. A skype lunch-n-learn starts at $2,500 and a 1-hour keynote starts at $12,500. And, you’re getting 6-hours of me for around $17, or whatever it costs for you to pre-order your copy of Uncertainty at any bookstore or website that works for you. Click here to learn more & claim your spot.

100 & 500 Book Pre-Order Experience.

Is your company, organization or group getting crushed by a lack of creativity and innovation? Are your people suffering more than they’re creating? If so, the very things you’re doing to try to spark creativity and innovation may be shutting them down. This book, the ideas and strategies in it, and the training experience I can deliver around it may well be your answer. So, I’ve created two special bundles for organizations.

When you pre-order 100 or 500 books now, you will essentially save your company between $2,500 and $10,000 and get me, a boatload of books and a set of strategies and practices that will change how your people live, create, relate and innovate. But, there are only 5 of each offer available. Click here to learn more & claim your event date.

Insane 10,000 Book Mystery Offer –

This is still double-top-secret, but you’ll know in a few days. You will not want to miss the video for this puppy! Even if you have no interest in the offer. Trust me on this…

Let’s Make a Deal –

A bunch of people have asked me if I could create some kind of custom pre-order bundle or experience. I thought about it, then decided, “hey, why not?” So I’ve also added a place for you to make me an offer. Maybe you work with a group of 25 artists or lead a small business or run a book group for the inmates in your cell block. Whatever it is, you can now make me an offer and, hey, we can talk about it! Just click here and scroll to the bottom of the page.

The cool thing about each of these pre-order “experience” bundles is that you’re no longer just buying a book, you’re enrolling in an experience, one that not only brings the book to life, but illuminates the ideas, practices and strategies on a whole different level, while allowing you to ask me questions about how to make it all work in your own quest to create great art, business and life.

I love being able to create bigger experiences like this for you guys! Makes me feel good to be able to give you more.

If you feel like sharing these experiences, I’d be grateful.

We hugged the coast for the better part of the trip. And for that same period, we were pretty much locked into fog.

It’s just the marine layer, people would tell us in the southern part of the state. Then, as we moved up north, especially around San Francisco and Marin, everyone started talking about these things called micro-climates. And we began to experience them firsthand.

Staying halfway up famed Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, we’d wake up to a cool, gray morning most every day, socked in by thick misty clouds. Wow, what terrible weather we’d think. Then throw on jeans, a sweatshirt and jacket. We’d kick around the house for an hour or two, waiting for the dark weather to clear. Then, eventually, jonesing for a cup of coffee, head down the mountain.

And as we drove, something remarkable would happen. The weather would turn from stark, gray and cold to crystal clear, sunny skies and gorgeous warm air.

It wasn’t that the clouds had cleared, though, it was that we’d simply driven out from under them. Seems the clouds in this part of the country don’t hover high in the sky, but rather sit, quite literally, on the ground. Because of a blend of water and air currents and temperatures, one side of a mountain will often remain cold and gray, while the valley below is bathed in sun.

When you watch the weather forecast for San Francisco on TV, you don’t just get the weather for the city, you get different forecasts for the vast variety of micro-climates in and around the city. On any given day, the Mission might be blazing sun, while Haight is cold and cloudy. Mill Valley in Marin might be cold and gray, while Saucalito, two miles away is sunny and warm.

And, all this made me wonder how often we’re blinded by micro-climates in our own lives and businesses?

How often do we awaken to a cold, gray feeling and assume that’s just the way the world is today? Everywhere. Instead of wondering if the cloud in which we’re mired is simply a dense fog, an emotional or circumstantial micro-climate. Something that blankets not the entire world, but simply the single spot from which we currently choose to view the world.

What might happen, I began to wonder, if we viewed darkness and challenge more as micro-climates, circumstances that may well blanket our experience and thinking, but are also entirely “drive-outable.”

What if we assumed the clouds weren’t high in the sky blanketing all the land, but rather low on the ground, engulfing only the small slice of land upon which we stood. And undertook to take whatever action was needed to find, then move into a sunnier place?

Dunno, just thinking out loud here.

What do you think?

A lot of heads nodded along in the comments, then TomC chimed in with a comment that you could just tell was driven by a lot of pain and spoke to a very real dilemma. For ease of reading, here it is again:

“Tough to make mistakes when they cost money to make. I, at times, am petrified into complete inaction because I know that the $10 or $20 or $500 is money I cannot afford to lose. Right now, I am trying to buy a domain name. Simple right? Well, first there is the $10 for the name and then the hosting and then the time to create the site and then the time to promote the sight and try to get a top ranking… but what if the name that I choose isn’t the right name? And this applies to a lot of stuff… like what if the copy I write is wrong for this product? Do I still order the brochures… or booklets.

When you don’t have a dime, making mistakes can completely crush you. Then you have to somehow pick yourself up and do it again. It’s a panic attack waiting to happen, all because the $100 you spent on something means that now you have a late payment fee on your credit card which bumped you over your limit… now the mistake has cost you $70 in fees plus the $100 a week of lost work and NO income… and now your wife is furious because you keep trying.

If you can afford to make them, make them… if you can’t afford to make them… What? Wait until you can? Or make them anyway and be prepared for the consequences?

I have the same trouble with self help gurus telling me that the most successful people make fast decisions… I assume that leads to a lot of mistakes. I can’t afford to make fast decisions either… and then the self help guru says coyly… “You can’t afford NOT to fast decisions”. Ughhh

Perhaps writing this was a mistake.”

He brings up a great question. It’s a whole lot easier to take risks, spend time and money needed to get to a place where you’ve figured out how to create amazing things when you’ve got the time and money to spend.

But what if you don’t?

What if every hour spent chancing failure is an hour you currently need to earn the money to pay your rent and keep your family intact? Then what?

In the self-help world, it’s become vogue to offer some variation of “you can’t afford not to do this, so dive in and let the chips fall where they need to.” That’ a pretty tough pill to swallow. I agree, there is a certain amount of irrational catastrophizing that can ride along with the process of risking action and failure. And that needs to be dealt with. In fact, I speak to much of it in my 2010 TEDx talk and my next book.

But there are also a lot of practical “on the ground” alternative ways to pursue a craft, goal or process that can make it more humane.

Let’s start with a bit of a reframe. First, making bad stuff is not the same thing as making mistakes. Nobody sets out to make anything poorly, we all strive to hit homeruns on the first try. But in the learning stages, it rarely works that way.

With rare exception, you’ve got to make a bunch of bad stuff in order to build the knowledge and skills to have the ability to make good stuff. So, it’s important to reframe making bad stuff not as a foolish, high-risk pursuit, but rather a necessary part of any quest to position yourself with enough skills and mastery to generate enough joy and/or money to consistently have your effort return way more than your investment.

When you start from this place, it helps frame what you’re doing and why in a way that makes it a lot more palatable. Still, money and opportunity cost can be a huge issue.

So what else can you do?

1. Make more bad stuff on someone else’s dime - Many fields have some variety of either paid or unpaid internships. These can be great ways to start taking action under the guidance of someone with expertise who’s in a position to accelerate your journey and will essentially underwrite your bad stuff. Sometimes you’ll even get paid a bit of money while learning.

And if there are no paid or free internships available, see if you can create your own, find people whose wings you’d like to operate under and ask if you can help them in exchange for the opportunity to learn.

2. Make more “virtual” bad stuff – Instead of spending the money needed to go through the iterations needed to get good at something in real life, see if there’s a way to do a bunch of that either for little or no money online. Are there online tools, forums, training sites, videos, classes that would allow you to either learn your process or give you enough of a knowledge or skill foundation so that once you finally had to make the leap and spend a bit more time or money, you were in a position to start making good stuff a lot faster.

I test product and copy ideas all the time in social media, in the form of quotes, posts, surveys, questions or even sample copy. Or I create a smaller, more discrete group of digital compatriots that allow me to learn and test very quickly and for no money. That allows me to hone ideas, marketing and copy before I ever have to invest more time and money to make, sell or distribute an actual product. If learning without spending money is a priority, there are a lot of ways to do it (or spend very little) by tapping the online world.

3. Make more bad stuff as a group - Find a group of likeminded people who are interested in learning the same thing as you and form a group to share the burden and costs of the learning process.

4. Make someone else’s good stuff as a stopgap – Study someone else’d proven methodology as a tool to accelerate the path to a level of competence that will allow you to make good stuff more quickly, albeit via someone else’s process. Then once you’re enough in the black to be able to take more risks and make more bad stuff in the name of learning and creating on a deeper level, begin that process as phase 2 of the journey.

I’m sure there are many other ideas and approaches that can help relieve the burden of making the bad stuff needed to get to the good stuff. And I don’t mean to make light of the challenge of going through a learning process where there is some cost involved when you’re already having trouble making ends meet.

If there’s no way to avoid spending a bit of money and allocating the full monty of time needed to learn what you want to learn, then adopt a far more deliberate process that allows you to set aside what you need with the understanding that it will require a bunch of bad stuff to be created and it may take you months or years longer than someone else with more resources available to them.

And in the interim, do as much gratis learning online or through internship or even observation in an effort to get the most out of those moments when you finally do have to drop some time and money.

Curious, what do you think?

These are just a few ideas, but you guys are way smarter than I.

Have anything to share?

Freedom to pursue multiple interests, it’s claimed, is the end-all, be-all. Deep knowledge, total devotion to the pursuit of mastery in a single field has been, to a certain extent demonized. And here’s where I raise my hand, because on occasion, I’ve likely stoked that very fire.

But increasingly, I wonder if part of what’s going on here is that people, let me rephrase that – “I” – have not been willing to endure the intense work, discipline and willingness to embrace risk needed to walk away from certain ingredients in my “interest basket” in the name of becoming extraordinary at one.

I’m beginning to challenge the assumption that the desire to piece together a multi-tentacled living is really about freedom.

I’m wondering if “blending” interests is really the ultimate manifestation of fear and constraint.

Do we really feel good about spending our time being pretty decent at a bunch of things, but not exceptional at any?

Does this make us feel better than we’d feel earning an equal or better living at a single pursuit that allows us to experience that rare, exquisite sense of contentment that comes from having developed a level of mastery over a single, discrete set of skills or body of knowledge?

Or, is the need to not have a three-word answer to the question “what do you do for a living?” more a reflection of:

• An inability to own the intense work needed for the pursuit of mastery,
• A desire to avoid the potential pain of failure, and
• Fear of choosing the wrong “one thing” and having to endure the pain of starting over

I can’t answer this for every person.

But what I DO know is that I’m beginning to feel like it’s time for me to reel in the nets a bit.

I’m getting increasingly dissatisfied with being known as someone who’s pretty good at a whole bunch of things, and I’m yearning more and more to be known as the X guy. The one everyone turns to for “that thing.”

Maybe not for life. I’m quite certain X will evolve into Y and then Z over a period of years or decades. But I’m feeling the need to explore and master one at a time, even if it means leaving certain activities on the table, risking choosing the wrong one and having to correct.

Sequential is starting replace simultaneous as my mantra.

Because I yearn for the sense of intensity, focus and intrinsic reward and that comes from a single-minded quest to master a particular body of knowledge, set of skills or field. I want to radiate the energy that comes not only from having attained mastery, but from being in the quest. The innate joy of the process, to me, is equally if not more rewarding than the end state.

And, yes, though I also fear the addictive pull of the pursuit of mastery, I believe strongly in the ability to put in place mechanisms that support a more humane, albeit very likely slower path, that honors not only the quest, but my deep commitment to be present and revel in the activities and relationships I hold dear along the way.

Now comes the really hard part…the selection process. Owning my X, and shelving the rest.

Curious, how do YOU feel about all of this?

What an amazing person, company and and experience. But that’s for a future post.

This is about something Bob shared with me after I stopped recording and asked a personal question.

Since selling my last business and turning most of my creativity to the digital word, I’ve been missing something. Making stuff I can see, feel, touch and look at. Yes, book’s count and I’m insanely proud the one that’s about to come out. But I miss getting my hands dirty.

I also play guitar and love the physical form of acoustic guitars. There’s just something utterly sensual about a beautifully-crafted guitar. So over the course of this year, I started researching what it would take to learn to build them. You can do apprenticeships, buy kits, take courses or read books. I learn best by doing, so I figured I’d jump into a 2-week course that looked very cool. That was 9-months ago and somehow life keeps getting in the way. Or so I thought.

So, I asked Bob what he thought I should do.

His answer, “go and make a really bad guitar.” Stop waiting around, go buy a kit and do it. Today.

The first one, he said, will be bad. Maybe really bad. But you’ll learn more making one bad guitar than you will waiting to do something and then taking a course that teaches you how to do it right. You’ll understand a lot more about the “why” behind good and bad building, and that’ll put you in a radically different position to do it better moving forward.

Dohhh. Palm to forehead moment.

In the nine months I’ve been waiting for the right time to do the course, I could have made one really bad guitar, a second kind of bad one and maybe even a third half-decent one. Meaning the the one I would build next just might be pretty sweet.

Thing is, Bob’s advice wasn’t about guitars.

It’s the same in writing, painting, sculpting, hacking, designing, building businesses.

The best way to build a kick-ass X is to immediately begin the process of building any X, knowing full-well there will be a lot of bad ones that need to be made on the way to “OMG that rocks!”

There’s a lot of emphasis on trying to accelerate the path to success by spending a ton of time studying the methods of those have succeeded before us in the hope that we’ll be able to avoid many of the mistakes they made. And, there is a certain logic to that.

But, what it doesn’t take into account is the fact that the thing that led them to be able to do what they do is that they, themselves, messed up, over and over and over, and it was that repeated intimate relationship with the mistakes that led to a deep enough understanding of “why” it needed to be done differently that led to their success.

Knowing how to do something “right” lets you more easily recreate the success of those who’ve come before you. But it doesn’t give you the knowledge and depth of experience needed to eventually go beyond what they’ve taught you. Because you’ll likely never understand, fully understand on an experiential, emotional and intellectual level, what went wrong along the path of those you’ve chosen to learn from. And how those things factored into what they are teaching you is the “right” way to do it.

And there’s something else. You’ll also only be learning their right way to do it, which may well not come close to being the best way to to something. But you’ll take it as gospel and, along with the fact that you don’t really understand why they do it the way they do, it’ll kill your own personal exploration of better approaches.

You wont get the admittedly potentially terrifying opportunity to build your own methodology from the ground up. Nor will you benefit from the visceral “why” that allows you to not only get to that same place (albeit it a bit more battered and bruised), but also to have the ability and reservoir of experimentation that lets you not just replicate another’s success, but take your own success beyond the place that a simple knowledge of how others succeeded before you would have left you.

So, learn, what you can, but at the same time, get your head out of the classroom and start making more bad stuff. Because…

There’s no greater accelerant along the path to genius than a flaming trail of crap.

Now, excuse me while I go order my first-ever guitar kit…and up my homeowner’s insurance.

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For those who missed it earlier this week – the new trailer for my next book Uncertainty went live. And the response was, well, go see for yourself…

It makes me feel good to devote a serious amount of deliberate energy, practice and study to getting really good at one thing. This may be due, at least in part, to the fact that according to the results of my VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire, developed by founding father of Applied Positive Psychology, Professor Martin Seligman, knowledge acquisition was pretty close to the top for me.

Developing a sense of mastery or at least deep knowledge in an area or skill feels good. Really good. And it can develop into a phenomenal business asset, leading to the creation of ideas, solutions, products, works of writing, art, music and expression that blow people away.

But there’s often a problem, when applied to the business of business.

The commitment it takes to go narrow and deep on a level that creates genius pulls you from other activities and people. When you’re working to launch or develop a business and you don’t have a team in place to do all those things that need to be done beyond the realm of your quest for depth, that can mean the very things needed to make the leap from creator of coolness to income generator get lost in the fray. Even with a team, your deep focus can pull you out of the level of leadership needed to drive not just the “interest,” but the business-engine forward.

That’s not all. There’s another challenge in spending all your time in deep and narrow land…

And that’s the potential to develop a condition I call entrepreneurial myopia. You become so hyper-focused on your tiny slice of the world that your depth of field begins to narrow to a point where everything becomes a nail to your hammer. You lose objectivity and start to view what you’re doing as the only way something can be done, solved or expressed.

You become a champion of your idea, your solution, your craft and view it as the ultimate source of delight or the only “reasonable” way to solve a problem. You discount all others because you’ve become wed not to the desire to serve, solve and delight, but to the need to bring this “thing” that’s become everything to you to the world.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, when the object of your deep interest and commitment is, in fact, the best solution or a true source of extraordinary delight. Problem is, when you’re on the inside looking out, you’re in the worst possible place to know which end of the spectrum you’re working on. Delusion or delight.

Narrow and deep is good. Especially in life where the drive is purely the intrinsic joy of going narrow and deep.

But when this quest is bundled with the desire to turn the output of your efforts into service to others in the name of solving a problem or creating a delight and, from that, generating an income, it’s equally important to create mechanisms that allow you to step back, to remove yourself and ask, “is the work that’s being driven by an intrinsic joy aligned with what large numbers of people want or need…and are willing to pay for.”

The moment you bring money into the equation, narrow and deep isn’t enough, you need to apply your efforts in a way that is aligned with the wants and needs of those you’re creating for.

If the person you’re creating for is you, that’s fine. In fact, it’s a gift.

But don’t confuse that gift with a business…

So, what do YOU think?