Love Your Niche

More important and profitable than acting

We’ve heard it before — If you do what you love, the money will come eventually, one way or another. As we mature in what can be a soul-wrenching cut-throat business environment, most of us lose faith in this hoped-for precept.  We learn to hedge our bets.  We have fall-backs.  We create a plan B, and then a plan C.  Many of us, maybe more of us that would like to admit, have given up a dream, whether major or minor, to do what is most practical for the long term.

At the end of the day, money talks.  And who can argue with that?

Well, maybe I can argue with that.

Some of the most successful businesses in the world began as beloved shots-in-the-dark. Take a look at Apple: in 1976 three passionate kids in a garage started a company by inventing the impossible and succeeding.  I can also argue that these types of entrepreneurs are not just happy people, but fulfilled people. Fulfillment isn’t easy and it isn’t for sale.

The flip side of doing what you love is that it may mean taking a greater risk than most of is would feel comfortable with.  Being a trailblazer in business is not easy.  But by choosing a field you love, reaping the rewards could be twice as sweet.

If you’re up for taking the plunge into a more meaningful success, the first step is to identify the exact niche you’ll be filling.  You have to ask yourself:

  • What do you absolutely love to do?
  • What are you good at?
  • Who would you like your customers be?

The key is to pinpoint the crossroads of where your interests and skills meet market potential.  This is your niche.  In this way, you’re not inventing a business out of thin air to meet a potential demand.  You’re applying your skills, and more importantly, your genuine love and interest, and matching them to a demand in the market.  Of course not everything is marketable.  You may not be able to sell your knowledge of antique jazz posters, but your prize-winning pie recipes might prove highly profitable.

It seems simple.  But taking the plunge is scary

Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple Corporation said in his now-famous graduation speech at Stanford University:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward,” Jobs said. “You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

Don’t be one of those people who lets life pass them by, then sits down one day to give advice about how to live your dreams to those still buzzing with youth.  Act!  And act now!  Anyone can get online, start a blog and make a difference sharing their expertise.  You never know when a few words of advice for the silent visitors to your site will be exactly what they need to hear at that moment.  And imagine when you can start creating info products that you can profit from! More on that in a later post.

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