How You Will Make Your Fame and Fortune

Godin recently pointed to a page of color choices that would "change your life. A lot. For the better." I clicked through expecting something at least mildly earth-shattering, and found about a dozen nice color palettes.

Life: not changed.

I mention this only because it makes me just a little glad that Godin is not great at everything. Godin is great at what he does, but apparently picking colors is something he sees as fairly difficult. I probably couldn't handle being VP of marketing for Yahoo, but give me a simple set of tools and a free three or four hours, and I'll gladly hand you 20 good-looking color palettes that will work for a lot of different applications and appeal to a wide range of people. That comes hard to a lot of people, and it comes easily to me.

The hugely-hyped Peter Drucker asks, in The Effective Executive, "What are the things that I seem to do with relative ease, while they come rather hard to other people?"

Go write that down. (I'll wait.) Put it where you can see it just about every day.

What are the things that you seem to do with relative ease, while they come rather hard to other people?

Some world-changing things
Godin sees the patterns of a new kind of marketing communication. He's called those patterns "Permission Marketing," "Purple Cows," "New Marketing," "Ideaviruses," and a host of other labels. He can translate those patterns to things he sees every day, providing positive and negative examples. His examples help other people see the patterns that most of us couldn't see before, or couldn't see clearly.

That's his thing. I would venture to guess that it has made him a pretty nice living. It has certainly made him hugely influential.

Pema Chodron's thing is taking esoteric and difficult Buddhist teachings and making them very clear and accessible to people living "normal" lives in the technologically-advanced West. Her mentor Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche was a greater Buddhist master, but Pema is a much more effective writer and teacher for ordinary Americans. She has eased the suffering and enlarged the compassion of countless people. Those people have gone on to ease the suffering and enlarge the compassion of others. She was an ordinary woman--a divorced schoolteacher with a plain face and bright eyes--who developed an extraordinary thing.

David Allen's thing was a way of looking at how to get more stuff done. He published two skinny books about it. (This one and the other one. You need both of them, trust me.) I have no idea if the guy has any other thing. He doesn't need one. GTD has revolutionized the lives of hundreds of thousands of people (including mine) and gotten one hell of a lot of stuff done in the seven years since his book was published.

Naomi Dunford's thing is taking big-agency marketing tactics and translating them in ways that work for Itty Businesses. She works too much because people go crazy for what she does and she can't multiply herself. Plus she should charge more money. And take better care of her health. But all that aside, she came forth doing her thing (and talking about it in a vivid, memorable way) and people went for it big time. There's power in the thing.

Understand the thing you have to offer
Some people have one thing that really works. A lot of people have a small collection of things that work uniquely well together. Even people with very grave mental disabilities usually have a thing, and for almost everyone, that thing has the seed of something remarkable.

So what's your thing? What comes easily and joyfully to you, and hard to others? Consider the great gift you can make by offering that to those who have a hard time with it.

And what, precisely, are you doing to nurture that remarkable seed?

Comments

[David Zinger]

As someone who is color blind I appreciate your post. It is a very good question to ask: What is your thing? Thanks. With a slightly Canadian mindfulness spirit, I will sit with that question today.

[Naomi Dunford]

Hey lady,

I'll be on that list any day. You wouldn't mind picking my paint colors, would you? It seems I am capable of: beige, white. I use one, get sick of it, then paint it the other, repeat.

And ahhh, the multiplication factor. The great dilemma of my life. Someday - when my clients don't hate me anymore - I will discuss this on the blog as a horrible warning.

Cool post. My life was not changed by the colors either, but it was changed by knowing that SG does not, in fact, know everything. Kind of makes what he does know even cooler, though, doesn't it?

[Sonia Simone]

So nice to see you, David!

That's how I felt about it, too, Naomi. I have a bad tendency to forget that people I admire are human beings, so this was useful for me that way.

I will gladly pick your paint colors! Picking paint colors is one of my very favorite ways to kill a few hours. If I can do it while drinking hot chocolate (w/whipped cream), my life becomes complete.

[Ellen Weber]

Sonia, what fun to hold colors up to the rainbow for another look at how they impact. Thanks!

As to your compelling question - I think one trait I do that others may enjoy doing less -- is to find ways to help folks leap forward from where they stand. I really enjoy seeing other' talents take off -- a bit like this cool site takes off!

Thanks for making it happen - Sonia.

[Sheree Motiska]

As long as I've been in business online I've been told I can do it bigger, faster, get rich-rich-rich. It usually involves pretending to be something you're not or just being a downright dirty creepazoid.

I have been telling myself for 3 years now, "it's fine, you're cool, Sheree. It's steady growing, I don't have to tend bar now, so why get greedy? Slow and steady wins the race."

It's amazing what happens when you can be a business person and remain true to your values. No amount of hype will ever change that.

I'm just getting ready to go to sleep after an especially productive day and I will sleep like a baby tonight since the last thing I did before I logged off was visit a representation of the fact that there is still something good happening out here in the web.

Thank You,

Sheree

[Layne (aka Reward Rebel)]

I've phaffed around with one or two articles on Squidoo, but haven't had the time to really develop it... but now I've got you! By following your example(s) I'm going to include a Squidoo element in all future projects.

Also, I enjoyed reading about Pema Chodron, and am Googling her now;-D

[Evan]

My thing is getting to the core.

The core issue for an individual or the core idea for a way of thinking or doing. I'm also interested in how it can be used to make worthwhile improvements to people's lives.

This isn't exactly an existing category.

Fortunately I find writing easy to do - though I hope to get lots better at it.

So blogging for me was a huge (and perhaps life-changing, we'll see) discovery. The short and value packed nature of posts suits my thing and my writing style.

I hope to do an on-line course for people to be called something like Living Authentically, launching in a few months. This is pretty much in line with my thing. Whether it matches up with what others are interested in I'll find out.

[David @ PostcardPerfect]

Glad to read that I wasn't the only one not blown away by his color pallet link. Here I thought I was just missing something...

FYI - I just came back to finish reading the post. I started yesterday but clicked to check out Naomi's site. There's a lot of good stuff - I almost forgot to come back.

[Jason Kong]

Sonia: I really liked this post. But I always seem to find something useful and thought-provoking from your blog. I'm curious: what do you see as your thing?

[Sonia Simone]

You guys are all awesome, thanks. It is so great to see you all here. xoxoxoxo

@Jason, good question. Part of my thing is helping teams to gel, part of it is communicating in writing, and part of it is translating concepts from one group to another. So right now I'm doing some interesting stuff translating marketing concepts for people who hate marketing. (Which I think a lot of this blog is about.)

@Evan, that is really exciting. Are you excited about it?

@Sheree, that just rocks. Thank you.

[Gary Fletcher]

I'm a bit late to the party but wanted to let you know that I enjoyed the post. Interestingly the quotation uses the words "seem" and "relatively" (easy). So your "thing" may be neither easily acquired, nor easy to do. Sigh, I guess that rules out sprawling on the sofa as my "thing"...

[online jobs]

I would draw your luck at the bright and light color, because for me it is like the sun that always shines and warms with its warmth