How Useful Are You?

I like the projects I work on. I have clients around the world. I get to write, think, talk, teach, coach and consult - from coffee shops or online or in countries and offices in amazing places. I work to a structure and rhythm and flow of my own making, of my own design.

Until this week.

“Sorry, we can’t start the project now. Not with all this going on”.

“We need to put this on hold.”

This will be a common story this week and for the weeks to come. It’s true for me already.

Suddenly things look a little less sure, a little less predictable, a little less known. Or feel that way, at least.

Times like these are helpful.

They invite an important question.

How useful am I?

Seth Godin asks a great question.

If I failed to turn up today, who would care?

It might only be 20% of the people in your orbit, of your clients. Or 5 or 10%.

But these are the critical 20%. The people you should over invest in. They are the audience who most get, most need what you do. You are important to them. They are important to you. Everything else is noise.

And if there is no 20%, keep working, keep tweaking, keep refining.

Adjust what you do and why and for who to ensure you matter.

Because in times like this, the system is cleansed. It is flushed through.

Survival of the most useful, as Darwin might have said and probably thought.

Be useful, friends.