Evaluating Paths To Success
What do YouTube, Amazon, and Soundcloud have in common?
There’s this idea in business about the success of a product in the market based on total market adoption or based on niche adoption.
For example, a typical bookstore carries the hits. Catcher in the Rye. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. War And Peace. Yes, they’ll even carry some less famous books like a cookbook by a celebrity chef or the kid’s book that Jimmy Fallon wrote.
What they don’t carry are independently published books, like your Uncle Larry’s comprehensive book about Dung Beetles. Sorry, Larry. Barnes and Noble just isn’t going to carry it.
What’s happening now is a market shift. Instead of having to hit it big on the radio, you can launch your own Soundcloud account and build your small niche audience. You can publish your own book on Amazon and print them as you sell them. You no longer need a big book deal, 100,000 copies, and a publisher who believes in you enough to take a significant portion of sales.
The internet has allowed us to find other small groups of people like us. We can find our own niche. This is a blessing and a curse, for sure, since I can now find the 40 other people in the world who believe the same conspiracy I do . . . but that’s another post. Cult, niche, what’s the difference?
My point is that YouTube has given everyone a shot at being a star. Soundcloud has created space for entirely new genres of music to emerge. Independent publishers have afforded the less-than-famous experts to share their expertise.
Years ago, Kevin Kelly wrote a piece called “1,000 True Fans.” You’ll see this same graph in his post, too. It made a big impact on me. Basically, the idea is that you don’t need to be Top 40 on the radio to achieve your goals. You probably just need 1,000 people who love your work enough to pay you $100 a year. That’s $100k a year. For most people, that’s enough for a satisfying and healthy life.
He’s advocating for you to build your niche, here. It’s a much more practical and possible path for most of us.
I’m not saying this is for you or isn’t for you. I just wanted to put this option in front of you so you could evaluate for yourself, based on your definition of success.
I hope this sparks some thoughts for you.