“What can I do that would actually be useful?” - Elon Musk
How to be useful?… that's a difficult and deep question that most of us don't fully understand or even want to deep dive to face the cold hard reality.
In the business sense; it will be useful to have a viable and hopefully sustainable economic model in order to create, generate and maintain value in a responsible manner.
In the normal sense (the you sense); it is changing from what it is, to what someone or something desires, even yourself.
The must needed, most horribly honest conversation you need to have with yourself… Who are you in the deepest sense as a human?
What can I be the best in, in this world?
Purpose through talent and hard work - embracing change, failure, grit and continued curiosity. It's not to be the best, but rather what you are the best at or in the process of becoming the best at within your natural style. Understanding what makes you the best in a deep and personalised self. This should form the core of your “business model”
Side question - What do you normally get praised about by people who are unrelated or unknown from each other? Look for the correlation and themes in the praise.
What do I care deeply about?
Purpose through what makes you care about life - embracing the fun, energy, grit and continued curiosity. It's not to become passionate about something, it is to be naturally passionate about something, your natural gravitation and immersion in things you care deeply about.
What is the economic driver?
Economically sustainable driver; Creating a value proposition by combining your best skills with your deep care to be the best at what you love while getting paid to do so… that sounds magical;
Economics and Marketing are always available to provide focus and clarity.
The people paying you have:
Need
Money
Willingness
You have skills and purpose:
Product / Service and Place
Price
Promotion
Purple#
# Uniqueness and differentiating
What do you want to be? Useful?
That’s easy, be the best in the world at something that you care deeply about that has an economic engine.
“There is no silver bullet that’s going to fix that. No, we are going to have to use a lot of lead bullets.” - Ben Horowitz
Further thinking and reading…
Comments