I was listening to Linchpin during my commute this morning.1 With good books this is a good practice because you’ll discover things you missed on previous passes. With great books like Seth Godin’s Linchpin, it’s a must-do because there’s so much gold in there it takes many passes to pan it all. This reading was no different.
The nugget I found this time was when Seth gave a tip that’s invaluable to guys like me who are trying to reclaim their lives by rediscovering their passions and self-actualizing:
“Find a niche where money flows as a regular consequence of the success of your idea.”
I built on this by thinking about the steps to make this lesson actionable. I came up with these four steps:
- List what you love
- Study how money flows in each situation where what you love is present
- Pick the part of the situation with the best ratio of money to love2, then do the work
- Pick the part of the situation with the highest love2 without regard to money, then do the work
Do the work that you select in both steps 3 and 4, unless the they are the same. If so, bonus!
- According to iTunes, this was my fifth listening; I swear it’s been more than that.
- These two are personal, so think it through.