The Urgency of Defining and Winning Your Category of One
AI has unleashed an existential crisis.
But it's one that has plagued mankind for ages.
It has raised the stakes.
"Who am I" and "What am I good at" if machines, computers, overseas competitors, AGI can do the same thing better, faster, cheaper?
For those who allow themselves to be commodified, this is a losing battle.
Steve Jobs, however, saw things differently:
"I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. Humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down the list. It was not looking too good for the bipeds. But then someone at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And a man on a bicycle blew the condor away. That's what a computer is to me: the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds."
Man's advantage comes from finding what he can do relative to competitors -- in this case, build tools like bicycles and computers.
But in the player vs player mode, the advantage is not as clear cut.
Without identifying it, what happens is people go into blame shifting mode. I have seen this first hand at work, where some people, unable to face their own lack of compelling value, blame others for their failures.
This results in all the bad behavior we are familiar with in companies.
In the broader realm of life, from an ever early age, we need to start to define who are we, really (Who Are We, Really?), and what games do we want to play What Games Do You Want to Play?.
The playing field which drives us to be commodities where the speeds and feeds are the only dimensions works against the nature of humanity.
We are meant to be different. Not the same.
Perhaps in the past, because society borrowed from industrial metaphors, we reacted this way. We saw ourselves as cogs in a wheel, and the mechanisms in place, particularly in the Industrial Complex, reinforced the concept of "human resources."
With the pace that new sectors, industries, sub-industries, and skills speciate and germinate, it matters to find something both true and flexible to fit with the market Finding Person-Market Fit.
In the end, finding how one's individuality both gives comparative advantage and collaborative enhancement is a path forward.
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Defining and winning your "category of one" is not a new idea.
But for me, it was one which has taken hold and is one that I don't fully know how to achieve.
I remember trying to learn about the idea of "Personal Brand" but that didn't land.
Most of the instruction tried to use the "external communication" approach to brand -- but that felt as ineffective as trying to focus on brand communications without working on the product in a start-up.
Category definition and dominance, while considered hard for products and companies, seems to be essential for humans. The Creator Economy has shown what's possible with this.
I underestimated this market.
For example, every fitness influencer, to me, shouldn't exist: many are offering nearly identical advice. However, under the hood, the details of how they offer their fitness does seem to differ, and the difference is what grows their business.
A fitness influencer who also doubles up as the self-improvement guru takes on a different audience from the one who focuses on the skinny-fat community who differs from those who have science and research.
In fact, this super micro-niches expand the TAM because they aren't 100% rivalrous goods. Consumers can multi-tenant -- they can subscribe to and become customers to more than one in the same category.
This isn't true for say an HR product or CRM; companies need to pick only one.
But those who define a compelling category and master leadership in that category can subdivide, reframe, bundle or unbundle.
A similar approach can be applied to one's life: career, consulting, freelance, creator business.
The questions to ask yourself about this are:
- How clear is it you should be the one being paid to offer the service you do (to your employer, to your clients, to your audience)?
- How is this category a game you both want to play and are able to win?
- Who are the customers who care about your category, can they be easily found, reached, and won over?
I have sketched out what I need to cover to build the foundations to help you answer them:
- The Urgency of Defining and Winning Your Category of One
- Problems > Passion
- Customers > Ideas
- All Your Problems are People Problems
- Why Programs, Lessons, and Tactics Often Don't Work
- Your Inside > Your Outside
- Your Personality Operating System
- Person-Market Fit
- Play Games You Can Win
Let me know how this resonates or what outstanding challenges you have faced on your own journey.
"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." - Oscar Wilde