The Rate of Return is Always Smallest When You Follow the Crowd
Popularity is saturated... and not where the money or luck is made either.
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Have you ever truly looked at the most popular trends, people or even widely spoken topics in the media? Why is that the moment things finally become mainstream, those who were much earlier to the “party” have moved on?
Well, probably for two reasons:
First, by the time anything becomes popular, the innovators and visionaries (early adopters) have already long “mined the opportunities”, as well as positioned themselves for substantial returns.
Second, those same early adopters are already seeking out the next areas for growth, as well as new emerging opportunities.
And you see this often.
The radio is just a fad.
Television is just a fad.
Email won’t last. We have mail.
The Internet is all hype.
Twitter is just for status updates.
Instagram is just for photos.
Cryptocurrency isn’t real.
Even more interesting is the fact that you often don’t see the people glamorized by the mainstream, such as celebrities and athletes, take part as early adopters until they see it become popular as well.
For the most part, mainstream people pretty much take part in mainstream activities with an occasional rogue player here and there.
And again, by that point, much of the early returns have already been set.
For context, let’s try this.
It’s 2014, Instagram is still transitioning from being solely about photography to users now starting to promote their creativity, products and services.
If you were lucky enough to be here during that time, myself included, you could be one of the few individuals in nearly any industry promoting your work and funneling a ton of clients and customers.
Enter 2016 and now the floodgates are open. Instagram is gaining fast ground and more and more people are seeing what other people had previously done to become successful. Additionally, the term “influencer” is in full swing.
Enter 2018 and everyone is a coach, consultant, guru, expert, model, actor, comedian, world traveler and more. Who do you listen to? Who do you trust?
There’s so much noise amongst popularity that it becomes overwhelming. In part, because popularity is fighting for the same audiences and in part because everyone is trying to squeeze out whatever is left from trends previously foreshadowed years ago.
Don’t be most people. In a conversation with a friend last night regarding Cryptocurrency, he made a very substantial point…
When the news is quiet about cryptocurrency, the hype is non-existent and the market is bearish… all the money is made.
My advice is simple… popularity is oversaturated, overrated, overcrowded and loud. . There’s HUGE opportunity for your future when you don’t wait for things to become popular first.
Read this week’s Simplify, Multiply, Diversify below…👇🏼
SIMPLIFY…
Are you swimming upstream or downstream.
Interpretation…
Are you constantly fighting resistance or going with the flow.
When we are playing in waters everyone else is, and we’re constantly trying to convince the masses to choose us over everyone else, we’ll find ourselves going against the current.
When we are playing in waters that most others are not, provide simplistic solutions and benefits to others’ needs and problems, or are simply just early to the game… then we have time to grow, develop and mine our “gold” without all the noise. Here we find our flow.
Yesterday’s early adopters of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok are now today’s early adopters of Twitch, Discord, Substack and Blockchain. Food for thought if you’re looking for new areas of discovery.
MULTIPLY…
Find a few multidisciplinary thinkers you can really learn from. They tend to see angles and blindspots that others don’t.
I can’t stress this enough. Multidisciplinary thinkers can multiply your efforts 10x in your life simply because they are doing the legwork for you. They are engulfed in how and what makes the human experience a happier, healthier and more prosperous one, not to mention they tend to see trends long before they are popular.
Find a few good players of the game of life who can teach you knowledge in the following:
Proper nutrition
Mindset and mental health
Holistic and alternative medicine
Individualism, critical thinking and strategy
Investing, budgeting and taxation
Building and managing wealth
Spirituality and meditation
Quantum physics and energy
Self-love, honesty, respect and communication
Emerging markets and technology
Imagine the possibilities if these subjects were taught early on in our education system but more on that in another letter.
DIVERSIFY…
Monetize your future... build in a way that allows your work to be invested in over the long run.
Don’t just be another influencer on Instagram. If we’ve learned anything from above and from life’s experiences, a.) it’s oversaturated and loud, b.) you can be shut down at any moment, and c.) you want to be more in control of the way you interact with your audience and customers across a variety of activities and platforms without having to worry about whether or not your people see your work, art, products or services.
With the decentralizing and democratization of the Internet, your value can be consumed in a variety of ways. Here are a few you might want to look into: (that give you more control over your value)
https://launchpass.com (for Slack & Discord)
https://foundation.app/about (read the whole page ;)
When thinking about the changing times of entrepreneurship, remote working and a massive uptick in people taking back their value, find more ways to build recurring wealth for the value that you not only bring, but continue to learn throughout your journey.
Web 3.0 is democratizing and decentralizing our physical worlds so we can build more generational wealth, health and happiness for our future worlds.
Never follow the crowd… your returns will always be highest when you don’t!!
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Such an impactful read!!!
Priceless advice! Thanks for all the resources!