86Thousand400: Tools of Titans, Start Small Dream Big

1000 True Fans - Revisited

- Kevin Kelly's "1000 True Fans"

- "Success" need not be complicated. Just start with making 1000 people extremely, extremely happy

- The number 1000 is not absolute. Its significance is in its rough order of magnitude - 3 orders less than a million. The actual number has to be adjusted for each person. If you are able to earn £50 per year per true fan, then you need 2000. (Likewise, if you can sell £200 per year, you need only 500 true fans.) Or you may need only £75k per year to live on, so you adjust downward. Or if you are a duet, or have a partner, then you need to multiply by 2 to get, 2000 fans etc

- (My notes) Price point for 74Core/333 Meal Plan

- Whatever your interests as a creator are, your 1000 true fans are one click from you. As far as Tim can tell there is nothing - no product, no idea, no desire - without a fan base on the internet. Everything made or thought of can interest at least one person in a million - it's a low bar. Yet even if only one out of a million people were interested, that's potentially 7000 people on the planet. That means that any 1 in a million appeal can find 1000 true fans. The trick is to practically find those fans, or, more accurately, to have them find you

- (My notes) Holistic health - Time/Health/Happiness Retreats/PT'ing/Chiro

- 1000 true fans is step No.1, whether you want a £100k per year business or the next Uber. Tim's seen this with all of his fastest growing and most successful startups. They start laser focussed on 100 to 1000 people, niche-in down as necessary with their messaging and targeting (demographically, geographically, etc) to get to a manageable and cost-effectively reachable number

- Do you want to build and manage a big company? For most people, it's not a fun experience; it's an all consuming taskmaster. There are certainly ace CEOs who thread the needle and enjoy this roller coaster, but they are outliers

- Read Small Giants by Bo Burlingame for some fantastic examples of companies that choose to be the best rather than the biggest

The Canvas Strategy

- Greatness comes from humble beginnings; it comes from grunt work. It means you're the least important person in the room - until you change that with results

- Old saying, "Say little, do much"

- Be lesser, do more

- Develop a reputation for being indispensable

- That's what the canvas strategy is all about - helping yourself by helping others. Making a concerted effort to trade your short term gratification for a longer term payoff

- Produce more than everyone else and give your ideas away