when deciding on a project, it’s tempting to pursue whatever seems to be trending at the moment.
however, the most successful endeavours are built with longevity in mind because it takes time, patience, and grit to grow something from the ground up.
one of the best ways to ensure you’ll stick with your newsletter, blog, or publication for the long run is to ensure it plays to your strengths.
for example, here’s how makerstations describes its mission: “we curate beautiful and functional home office setups from makers around the world, and, most importantly, tell stories of people behind them.”
so, how does this align with the founder’s strengths?
ilya: i worked as a design lead and in my spare time, i take joy in portrait photography. once, my photo series about edinburgh was featured by bbc news.” makerstations brings together several of the founders’ strengths:
- interest in design
- skill in photography
- ability to interview and share people’s stories.
many creatives find that their rare combination of experiences is what leads to unique positioning or niche in the market. nothing is wasted.
i would like to add on to the redacted excerpt from a blog post above…
in addition to interest, skill and ability, perhaps fear is also another quadrant to think about. not in the way that do things that do not fear us, but instead what i start to realise is that the things you want tend to be behind the things you fear or hate to do.
and maybe having a balance of all 4 quadrants will allow a healthy balance of challenge, passion and discipline when pursuing your side project.