Personal Monopoly

tags:: Writing #source/video on/creator-economy #a/concept
author:: David Perell
up:: Creatorpeneur

You want to be the only person who does what you do.

The internet delivers outsized rewards to those who have personal monopolies.

When you’re known as the “go-to” person for a set of unique skills and experiences— people, search engines, and the media amplify your message more often. The clearer your ideas and unique perspectives are, the more other people feel a spark of resonance when they see it. That spark of resonance starts a virtuous cycle of opportunities that you’re at the center of.

Goal: become the best at what you do, by narrowing what you do.

• Combine valuable skills that aren't usually combined
• Tell the world how you can bring value

How to Define

Define interests as precisely as possible. Art > Painting > I write articles about how impressionism and cubism led to seeing the world in a new way in the 20th century.

Also think about: personality traits, distribution channels, membership in some community (college, club), languages, geography, experiences you have access to, people you know.

Paradox of Specificity

Specializing can lead to more opportunities in the long run.

Write for a tiny group of specialized people. You don't need to care about a wide audience, over time it can expand.

Listen for the CUES

Complementary

Find a personal monopoly that's greater than the sum of its parts.
1 + 1 = 3.

Unusual

Combination of skills you rarely see together.

E.g., Andy, engineer with unbelievable sense of aesthetics. Started on Tumblr, Instagram account with beautiful images. Started advertising agency: qualitative + quantitative. Started Unfold.

Experiential

Something you've experienced in life.

We underestimate Tacit Knowledge because it's things we just know from our experiences, that we can't explain. The painter looking at friend "ah you're missing this, you're missing that" even after explaining everything he could come up with.

Specific

Focus on a niche topic where you have a huge knowledge.

How You Can Build a Personal Monopoly

You shouldn't look at the world and find what's useful. Not what the world wants, but you innate interests. You have to love what you do.

It's not about your skills. It's about being known for the skills you have.

With your own distribution, you can control the narrative. You can even use other people's ideas and add, and give credit.

Listen. We're like fish in water where we don't even know how to explain what it is what we do. Often others can describe our personal monopolies better than we do.

Because of global rewards and global competition, the internet rewards differentiation.

Differentiation is free marketing.