Are you wasting your time?

Here’s another great thought from Chris Guillebeau:

I’m not an evangelist, and I realize that I probably can’t change anyone’s mind about anything. Someone asked recently, “How can you convince someone that your opinion is right?” I’ll write more about this later, but there’s an easy answer: you don’t. If your business model relies on convincing, I think you have a uphill battle ahead of you. Instead of convincing people who are opposed to your message, spend your time finding people who are already predisposed to it.

When I worked in a church, one of the pastors used to say something along the lines of “don’t waste your time starting a new group from scratch. Find people who are already gathering and then build infrastructure around them.” It’s roughly the same concept, and the idea is pretty sound: don’t make it so hard for your business, project, or community-building effort to succeed. Don’t create extra work for yourself. Focus your time and energy and money where they will be most productive.

Yes, there are times when convincing others is necessary or desireable, but if it’s a constant need something is probably not working the way it should.

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