By the Ocean
Sunny 77 Degrees
07:05 a.m.
This month marks the start of my 16th year writing these emails. Over that time, I’ve seen people come, I’ve seen them go. I’ve seen them go and come back again and say, “oh, you’re still here!” I’ve also reinvented the way I show up several times during those years.
The only thing that’s never changed is that I always SHOW UP.
I show up when sales are good, I show up when sales are bad. I show up when I’m clear about where I’m going, I show up when I’m lost in the wilderness looking for the next version of who I’m here to be.
In the crazy age of A.I., where humans are being tempted with yet one more gizmo to disconnect from their true selves, the value of truly showing up is increasing at a rapid rate.
How many people in your life do you have that show up, as promised, without demanding anything?
YOU CAN BE THIS for someone. You can be this for thousands of people.
If you want to build a position in the marketplace that cannot and will not be copied, JUST SHOW UP and add value to the lives of far more people than you could ever work with.
Here’s the problem with this strategy: NO ONE NOTICES AT THE BEGINNING. You’ll probably feel totally invisible…for a long time.
That’s what we call “the hump.” That’s the mountain you climb with this strategy where the payoff is usually nothing more than the satisfaction you get from helping people.
This doesn’t work for Matrix brain because the Matrix is all about getting the result TODAY.
But nothing good is immediate. Immediate is the road to commodity land. If you can get the result right away, so can everyone else. And that’s not a strong position, that’s an invitation for problems.
Business is about helping people. It’s about making their lives better by adding a form of value for which they are happy to exchange their money.
You have to be more valuable than their money. That’s the target.
SHOWING UP is a huge piece of the puzzle.