It’s easy to get stuck in a comfortable, reasonably profitable business model. In fact, this is precisely why otherwise gifted, creative individuals choose to take salaried jobs at boring companies – security and comfort outweigh the potential risk. For me, this scenario represents a fate worse than death. At the same time, however, I often find myself resisting work on newer and riskier ventures simply because I feel this strange obligation towards my sustainable niche, which in my case is web design.
Seth Godin, who consistently provides sage marketing advice on his site, shared a few words on this subject this past week:
Lots of people are willing to work hard. Not as many are willing to take intellectual or project risk. As a result, they make boring stuff that’s quite likely to fail.
Since high school, I’ve come into contact with tons of really intelligent people – people who, in my opinion, are as qualified as anyone to take intellectual risks and succeed marvelously. Unfortunately, a vast majority of them probably won’t, however, and I kind of hate that fact.
So, am I going to follow Seth’s advice (and my own) and start working on something that will define my career? Are you?