“Build it and they will come” is usually back-asswards from how you’re supposed to bring your vision to life.
The most gorgeous tropical knob of paradise benefits no one, if it can’t be found on any map.
Many successful gurus and leaders will tell you something similar.
This brings to bear one of the many dichotomies I face in designing my own world and helping others do the same.
Most everyone I’ve learned from has taught me that it’s foolish to push a service or product on an undesirable public, hoping someone will buy.
Better to find a hungry market and give it what it wants
Yet others have built whatever it was they wanted to build and then got “discovered”, resulting in wads of success being heaped upon them.
So whose counsel are you supposed to trust?
All well-meaning advice has two potential outcomes to it; one good, one bad, depending on many variables.
yours, your mentor’s, and that of your perceived audience.
It’s a pain in the sphinctoid trying to figure on which side of any sensible argument one should land.
I’ve come to believe it’s a case by case situation. People have succeeded in both directions.
But I feel the best starting point is to have, or be part of a platform
Just share your mind and personality with the world and let the fit happen organically.
That’s the goal with Outsiders Journey.
What you’ll find in this site is all I care to do, and all that my experience has shown me that I’d best stick to, no matter what other needs or wants I may have.
Truthfully, every time I try to make a living doing the things I share in this site for other people, it blows up in my face.
Sharing and advising on these matters, however, is another story.
I’m the overview, the outline, the inspiration, the template, the provider of context. The guy behind the throne, not the guy directing from the throne.
I show you how to run your country by using my country as the example
I offer a certain set of skills and perspectives to help others succeed at their missions
But the missions come in all shapes and sizes. And assisting with the creation, completion, and eventual success of these missions is the only way I wish to spend my day.
Scratch that. It’s all I do… period.
Regardless of how well my way of being affects my bottom line, helping people win with their projects is all I find interesting in life.
And I’ll start helping others in a friendly manner anywhere during my daily travels, no matter what level of reward, if any, it may bring me. It’s my natural state of being.
Case in point: I overheard a conversation in the small gym that’s currently saving my Lifter’s Soul.
One of these guys wants to build a hard core gym. The type that I grew up with and could find anywhere, but no longer exists on any large scale in America.
(Hence, one more indicator of the weakening spirit of our people. But we’ll put a pin in that for a later post.)
I politely injected myself into the conversation and discovered that this man and I met under very similar circumstances a few years back. The meeting was brief and that plan died on the vine some months later. So we never got to know each other and were, essentially, strangers, once again.
Fast forward: I started sharing all I knew about my past attempts to raise a hard core gym from the bare ground, gather the membership, market the beast, and develop the kind of community and offshoots such an environment could create for continued growth.
This excited my new old friend, pushing my enthusiasm even higher too. So I agreed to do some digging for deeper info and resources to help give his idea wings. Just as a helpful resource. No strings. No commitments.
And I did so. And he was very grateful.
Then we didn’t see each other for a couple weeks.
We both landed at the little gym together last night and reconvened our discussion; caught up on current events pertinent to his idea’s growth and brainstormed more ways to develop funding, foster community support, and develop marketing for this yet to be real venture.
Was this my aim? Not really.
I figured he was solidly gung-ho. And he is. Tremendously!
But his response to my interest and efforts is something I manifest in those I meet on a regular basis. It’s one more natural byproduct of having me as a contact.
And my depth of marketing knowledge and my personal network are both considerable, particularly in his field.
The point is, these are things I cannot help doing!
There’s a complex back story to all this, good and bad, none of whose details I wish to make public. Nor would I.
This is sacrosanct territory here; gaining someone’s trust, getting inside their head, swapping insider knowledge, tiptoeing through the related political and social minefield attached to what he’s trying to do…
I’d never abuse that trust.
And I am honored that this (practically) stranger, sees in me not only someone he can trust, but someone whose value is plainly obvious, whose excitement is infectious, and who wants to see him succeed at this as if it were my own.
Because in a way, it is.
If he wins at this, it’ll validate my abilities in yet one more area.
If the plan falls flat, at least I made a deeper connection with someone I also respect. And the attempt is both rewarding, as well as enhancing to my capabilities.
And all of those things, to me, are priceless.
Because, more plans will occur. He’ll keep dreaming and shaking hands. And so will I.
If not this dream, then another.
And none of it would have happened had I not opened my mouth, then my head, then my heart..and just been me.
What, or who, are you? What might we be to each other? See a fit? Make some noise in the comment form below.