Some of the best career advice we’ve ever seen was from our collaborator Seth Godin:
“There is no Tooth Fairy.”
Your movie will never be bought by Hollywood. Washington will never elect you to the Senate. The New York Times will never review your book. Columbia will never offer you a record deal. Google will never buy your startup. Jimmy Fallon will never invite you onto The Tonight Show. Your paintings will never hang in the MoMA.
In other words, stop waiting for some magical being to come along and make your life work out. Stop waiting for your life to turn into a fairy tale.
Like everyone else, you will be permanently ignored by the big fish. You will never be a “Name”. You will be one of those people that the “Names” are completely oblivious to.
But that’s OK. By being “Ignored”, that means nobody is watching you. That means you can do what you want, with the people you want, making a difference in your own terms. By being “Ignored”, you are forced to discover your own “intrinsic” meaning behind your work, because the “Names” and their “extrinsic” acolytes aren’t there to help you.
And with the Internet, all that is easier than ever. Just start. Today. Find your tribe online and give them a reason to be excited. Make it matter. Make it count. Like Seth says, don’t wait to be picked, pick yourself.
Just don’t waste a second, ever again, waiting for the phone to ring. The phone isn’t going to ring. This is our fate. We are The Ignored. We’re going to change the world on our terms, not theirs.
Let us know how you get on…
