Be The Change You Want To See

‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’

This is perhaps the currently most used wrote by Ghandi. I like it. I always have. For my roving masculine loins, it has appealed to my urge to push the envelope, be an entrepreneur, and other semi-rebellious desires.

So it was quite appropriate when I picked up ‘Rework’ from the guys at 37signals and one of their major points was to ‘design solutions for yourself.’ This certainly flies in the face of conventional thought. I hear a stodgy reprimand from my societal programming, ‘Grant, design for your ideal client,’ or, in the case of our non-profit, our ‘ideal supporter.’

But, Just Who Is My Ideal Client/Supporter, Anymore?

If you have read or listened to Clay Shirky or Stephen Covey,..or me, for that matter, you should have gotten the message at we think that things are a-changing. (Cue Bob Dillon’s “Times Are A-Changing.”)

And you may think that, being the self-educating person you are, when the time demands, you will simply find the best book, mentor or seminar you can find. You may think that you could just get the Cliff’s Notes, that you’ll find the nuggets and shortcuts and take off from there.

I hate to tell you this, but you won’t. And neither will I.

Things are moving so fast that identifying an ideal client or ideal supporter is almost impossible. That’s because the market is shifting. Trends in the non-profit world are shifting. Typical sources for funding are dissipating while new sources have yet to be revealed. Typical, generalized messages are being overlooked while hyper-micro-niches are starting to breath with life, even if just a little.

The path we are on as businesses and non-profits alike is uncharted.

You will not find that mentor because there is none. You will not find that seminar; no one is putting it on. You will not find the best book because it does not exist…Yet.

You see, things are moving so fast and changing so drastically that you will have to become that mentor. You will have to put on that seminar. You will have to write the best book on the topic. You will have to offer the Cliff’s Notes.

The Ideal Client, The Ideal Supporter Is Now You

We know this much is true:

• You must adapt to obtain your goals.
• We must adapt toward hyper-micro-niches, which means YOU-niches.
• Since no one else does you as well as you do, there are no mentors, seminars or books about how to create the niche of You, thus, will have to forge the path.
• To sustain the path, the path will have to be something you are very familiar with, very interested in, and could pour yourself into.

This will demand that you design for you.

You are now your own ideal client. This is what is meant by Web YOU-point-0. You can no longer wait for someone create those changes.

YOU HAVE TO BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE THE IN THE WORLD. (Thank you, Mahatma.)

With you as the ideal client, things just got a lot simpler.

When you became the ideal client several things happened in your favor. First, you know yourself. Well, hopefully you know yourself, and most likely you know yourself a lot better than you know others.

Second, you can sustain any material coming out of your life. That doesn’t mean I want your tweets from the last time you went to the bathroom. I am not talking about a vanity brand presence. I am talking about the thing within you, the thing you were created to leave the world.

I am talking about Legacy.

The boys from 37signals were commenting that you should be looking for solutions for what you are facing. Develop the solutions. Then deliver them.

Simple, but this is the demand on us from the new frontiers we are facing. The same is true in our work in Haiti.

The Work In Haiti Demands Us To Lead Ourselves

We know of very few people doing the work (www.cpihaiti.org) we are trying to do who have produced education, materials, or strategies for what we are doing. We are writing the book as we go.

• No one is here to tell us how to inspire supporters.
• No one is here to tell us that the back roads beyond Kenskoff to Chauffard sometimes get closed due to mudslides, or that we have to leave the mountains at the first sight of rain so that we make it out of the back-country before the river beds we use as roads wash out.
• No one is here to tell us that, even in this hot country, it gets below 60 degrees at night in the mountains, or that there are chiggers that cause the nastiest bite near the water source, or how to understand the vodou beliefs.

We have to learn it. We have to teach it. We are now creating material for ourselves and, hopefully, for those who are to follow in our footsteps.

What areas are you walking in where you need to write the book?

If you cannot find these areas, maybe now is the time to spark your creativity, challenge yourself into the new frontiers, and find that uncharted area you were destined to pioneer.

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Grant R. Nieddu

Tagged as: be the change you want to see in the world, developing content, ghandi, Haiti, hyper-micro-niches, hyperniche, ideal client, knowledge age, mahatma, non-profit