Kevin Kelly wrote a short article in 2008 called “1000 True Fans” . It’s an article that every aspiring Generalist should read. I won’t try and explain it, as Kevin is a much better writer than me, but I will tell you what I’m going to do with the information in the article.
At time of writing Imageneralist.com has collected one email address, and yes, you guessed it – it’s my own. I want to collect 1000 email contacts. Frankly, that feels pretty optimistic sitting here typing knowing that I currently have just one. So in line with the theory of taking tiny steps, my first goal is 10. Now that seems easy doesn’t it? All I need to do is ask 10 mates to fill in my opt-in box. Problem is, I’m scared to ask – now that sounds nuts, right? See my earlier article “Why I’m Sh#@t Scared Of Writing”. http://imageneralist.com/ Anyway, I’m going to undertake a promise to myself to ask 10 friends to sign up. Here’s another thing: what am I asking them to sign up for? At this stage I’m not even sure, but if I
sit around waiting for the time to be right, for the idea to be fully formed, I’ll be waiting forever. At forty six I’ve already wasted to much time waiting for the perfect time. I’m hoping some of my friends might even ask some of their friends to sign up too; that would be cool, and a little frightening.
I’m going to write a future post on creating content and owning an audience (I mean that in the nicest possible way.) I think the future for content creators lays somewhere between the intersection of these two things. In the meantime, for an introduction to Kevin Kelly and his fabulous mind I suggest you start here it’s an interview with Kevin done by Tim Ferriss on his podcast. You may have heard of Kevin if you’re a reader of Wired Magazine, where he was a founding editor. You can also find his work over here http://kk.org/
Help a brother out and sign up
Cheers,
Alan @generalistalan
You’ve got my email address, you should have asked earlier. What number are you up to now, 10 months after you wrote this