Publish365 033: The Entrepreneurial Spirit
In yesterday's post, I spoke about the entrepreneurial spirit and how I wanted to encourage the shoveling kids by paying them well for what they did. I believe that everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and own a business of their own and the difference between the people who do it and those who don't is simply commitment. As Matt, Jason Stapleton's cohost says often, everyone is an entrepreneur. If you own your own business, the reason is obvious, but if you don't then you're just a really bad one with only one client (meaning your client that's paying you is your boss and the company you work for).
In the episode of Because We Make that dropped this morning, we spoke to Anne from a YouTube channel called Graphic Design How-To. In the episode, I asked her a question: why did she decide to move into YouTube and graphic design education? The answer was so perfect, it was almost as if I planned it to get the response I wanted. She said it was mainly because in her work as a graphic designer she would go looking for how-tos and tutorials, and often come up short, so since the content wasn't there she decided she should fill that gap. She also told us that in her private Facebook group, members will often share their concerns and questions with each other for peer-to-peer type help, and if she sees a lot of requests for information she'll often make a video on it because it's indicative
of a need and a deficiency in what's available.
I love thinking like this. A need was there, and an opportunity to fill it presented itself. Anne decided that she should be the one then continuously worked toward being an authority in the space. Today she, as far as I'm concerned, is one of the best teachers in graphic design applications. She's so good that my cohost, Ethan, even told her that he doesn't even use Adobe Illustrator and yet he learns a ton on the processes of doing design work from what she does. She's filled needs in ways she never even predicted!
I think it's awesome when someone starts pushing into an area to be the voice in an area, or to fill a need or service, and while it isn't always the easiest route to success, you can carve out a niche just by being the person filling the need instead of the person trying to get their need filled. Chances are if you have a need, someone else does also and you'd do well to turn that into your "thing" while the opportunity is there.
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