Here’s the takeaway: If you are willing to satisfy people with good enough, you can make just about everybody happy. If you delight people and create change that lasts, you’re going to offend those that hate change in all its forms. Your choice.
This is from Seth Godin’s recent blog post How to Make Everyone Happy
I think it’s really an important point for any entrepreneur or anyone looking to move forward in a job or career. If your making everyone happy your probably not standing out and your not doing anything that is going help you reach your goals. You need to define yourself more. Maybe you don’t have to make enemies but you sure don’t need everybody to like everything you do.
Think about every corporation, blogger, even your friends. I bet for many of them you can think of people who criticize them, maybe even down right don’t like them. That’s a good thing!!! It means those people did something to stray from the norm, to stand out of the crowd a little bit. The best corporations, entrepreneurs, bloggers don’t try to please everyone. They carve their niche and go above and beyond to please the people who do follow them.
I understand that it comes with more risk, but with risk there is reward. If you aim to please everyone no one will ever remember you. Mangers will overlook you during promotion time, investors won’t recall your venture or won’t see it going anywhere. Now if you stray from the norm and develop a reputation of standing out your rewards become much greater. Sure you may anger managers, get eye rolls from investors but the point is when you find that person who agrees with you they will embrace you. This probably won’t happen quickly it could take years of work and arguments, but once someone sees things like you do you could get opportunities you might never have imagined. No one will embrace you if you fall into the norms of the crowd and they can’t see what you stand for.
Take the risk….you might just be in for an exciting ride.
