Becoming One of One
Becoming One of One
Becoming One of One
Becoming One of One
Becoming one of one
The concept I’m most obsessed with right now is becoming one of one.
This is my only content strategy. All eggs are in this basket.
What does it mean to be one of one?
It means that you own your category. You are the best one like you. People know you because you’ve pioneered a new lane or become the best within it. You’re rare. You’re a unicorn.
Being one of one is where all the gold is.
When you become known for being one of one, people want to work with you because you’re you, not because you talk about a certain topic or have a certain skill.
The best example of this is Joe Rogan.
Joe Rogan has a podcast where he interviews interesting people. He also happens to have the biggest podcast in the world.
But there are plenty of other massive podcasts that interview interesting people…this isn’t what makes him one of one.
What makes him one of one is the unique combination of his interests…comedy + podcasting + MMA + bow hunting + science + UFOs…and skills…comedian + MMA blackbelt + FearFactor host + UFC commentator.
In the Venn Diagram of all the interests/skills in the world, Joe Rogan is the “best” with this unique combination.
Now surely there are people that are better (both deeper interest and more advanced skill) than Joe in each individual category (e.g., Royce Gracie [MMA], Cam Hanes [Bow Hunting], Dan Carlin [podcasting]), but no one is better at the unique intersection of all of them.
But this is where things get tricky…
Just because you have a unique set of interests/skills, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will be more successful than someone else with their own unique set in a different category.
For example, if you’re the “best” at the intersection of AI + theater, maybe your unique skills aren’t as well suited for internet scale as the person that’s best at the intersection of AI + sports.
When you layer on financial success, many more things come into play (e.g., market size, market interest, momentum, virality, growth, etc.).
But it will be much easier to become known as the AI + theater guy than just the AI guy.
And that’s because as the AI + theater guy, you have a more unique lens on the world.
Maybe you’re able to sing/perform as you talk about AI and that’s what the world wants.
The key to being one of one is owning your unique intersection of interests/skills.
The key to having massive financial success while being one of one is that you’re able to apply your unique intersection of interests/skills towards a business model that works in today’s world.
This helps explain why you often see “weird people” with little financial success become massively rich overnight when their niche becomes mainstream.
For example, in the early 2000s, the people at the intersection of sports + video games + commentary were likely poor and considered losers.
That’s because their “one of one” intersection was unique but not valuable to the world at that time.
Then esports got popular and all of a sudden those people were best positioned to capitalize on an emerging market model that the world wanted.
It’s not enough to be unique…you have to be unique at the right thing at the right time, or at least a time when there is a big enough niche of other people that will like you for that thing.
How to become one of one
Fortunately, there’s only one way to become one of one…find a unique set of interests/skills and become the best at them.
Interests are easiest when they’re authentic. It’s tough to pretend to be obsessed with something if you don’t actually like it.
Skills can be honed and developed from scratch.
The goal is then to pursue depth across all of these things based on your natural drift.
Eventually, if you keep pulling on those threads for long enough, you’ll become one of one at some unique intersection of them.
Hopefully the world/market is willing to pay for that unique intersection when you become that best at it.
It can be easy to overengineer this. I would say, just drift for a while and see what you like and then go hard into it.
Here’s an example of how I’m thinking about it…
My interests:
Product strategy/vision - thinking about the way products are designed and messaged to the world
Design - I love looking at amazing design
Business strategy - understanding and mapping how businesses win
Health - everything related to optimizing health
Tech/gear - physical & tech products
Sports - watching sports/playing sports
Psychology - thinking about why people do the things they do and how to persuade/compel/incentivize them in a business context
My current skills:
Storytelling - writing/visualizing a compelling story
Writing - Blueprint style, my POV on things
Idea generation - Coming up with new ways to solve nagging problems
Vision - Charting a new path of the future
Thinking in witty/metaphors - I think in metaphors
Shooting/flipping based drinking games - Sadly, I don’t think this will help me anymore
My desired skills (things I want to be better at):
Product design - to take a product from my vision to real
Video editing - to take a story from my vision to real
When you look at this combination of things, it’s not yet clear where the one of one sauce will come from.
But if I had to guess, in 10 years, I’ll be the best in the world at some combination of these things.
If I wasn’t excited about that reality, I should stop spending time getting better at the ones that didn’t excite me.
— — — — — — — — — — — — —
If you enjoyed this post and want more like it, you should subscribe to me weekly creator journal, Blueprint. Each week, I share metrics, ideas, frameworks, and experiments designed to supercharge your thinking about content & brand building in the modern age.
Becoming one of one
The concept I’m most obsessed with right now is becoming one of one.
This is my only content strategy. All eggs are in this basket.
What does it mean to be one of one?
It means that you own your category. You are the best one like you. People know you because you’ve pioneered a new lane or become the best within it. You’re rare. You’re a unicorn.
Being one of one is where all the gold is.
When you become known for being one of one, people want to work with you because you’re you, not because you talk about a certain topic or have a certain skill.
The best example of this is Joe Rogan.
Joe Rogan has a podcast where he interviews interesting people. He also happens to have the biggest podcast in the world.
But there are plenty of other massive podcasts that interview interesting people…this isn’t what makes him one of one.
What makes him one of one is the unique combination of his interests…comedy + podcasting + MMA + bow hunting + science + UFOs…and skills…comedian + MMA blackbelt + FearFactor host + UFC commentator.
In the Venn Diagram of all the interests/skills in the world, Joe Rogan is the “best” with this unique combination.
Now surely there are people that are better (both deeper interest and more advanced skill) than Joe in each individual category (e.g., Royce Gracie [MMA], Cam Hanes [Bow Hunting], Dan Carlin [podcasting]), but no one is better at the unique intersection of all of them.
But this is where things get tricky…
Just because you have a unique set of interests/skills, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will be more successful than someone else with their own unique set in a different category.
For example, if you’re the “best” at the intersection of AI + theater, maybe your unique skills aren’t as well suited for internet scale as the person that’s best at the intersection of AI + sports.
When you layer on financial success, many more things come into play (e.g., market size, market interest, momentum, virality, growth, etc.).
But it will be much easier to become known as the AI + theater guy than just the AI guy.
And that’s because as the AI + theater guy, you have a more unique lens on the world.
Maybe you’re able to sing/perform as you talk about AI and that’s what the world wants.
The key to being one of one is owning your unique intersection of interests/skills.
The key to having massive financial success while being one of one is that you’re able to apply your unique intersection of interests/skills towards a business model that works in today’s world.
This helps explain why you often see “weird people” with little financial success become massively rich overnight when their niche becomes mainstream.
For example, in the early 2000s, the people at the intersection of sports + video games + commentary were likely poor and considered losers.
That’s because their “one of one” intersection was unique but not valuable to the world at that time.
Then esports got popular and all of a sudden those people were best positioned to capitalize on an emerging market model that the world wanted.
It’s not enough to be unique…you have to be unique at the right thing at the right time, or at least a time when there is a big enough niche of other people that will like you for that thing.
How to become one of one
Fortunately, there’s only one way to become one of one…find a unique set of interests/skills and become the best at them.
Interests are easiest when they’re authentic. It’s tough to pretend to be obsessed with something if you don’t actually like it.
Skills can be honed and developed from scratch.
The goal is then to pursue depth across all of these things based on your natural drift.
Eventually, if you keep pulling on those threads for long enough, you’ll become one of one at some unique intersection of them.
Hopefully the world/market is willing to pay for that unique intersection when you become that best at it.
It can be easy to overengineer this. I would say, just drift for a while and see what you like and then go hard into it.
Here’s an example of how I’m thinking about it…
My interests:
Product strategy/vision - thinking about the way products are designed and messaged to the world
Design - I love looking at amazing design
Business strategy - understanding and mapping how businesses win
Health - everything related to optimizing health
Tech/gear - physical & tech products
Sports - watching sports/playing sports
Psychology - thinking about why people do the things they do and how to persuade/compel/incentivize them in a business context
My current skills:
Storytelling - writing/visualizing a compelling story
Writing - Blueprint style, my POV on things
Idea generation - Coming up with new ways to solve nagging problems
Vision - Charting a new path of the future
Thinking in witty/metaphors - I think in metaphors
Shooting/flipping based drinking games - Sadly, I don’t think this will help me anymore
My desired skills (things I want to be better at):
Product design - to take a product from my vision to real
Video editing - to take a story from my vision to real
When you look at this combination of things, it’s not yet clear where the one of one sauce will come from.
But if I had to guess, in 10 years, I’ll be the best in the world at some combination of these things.
If I wasn’t excited about that reality, I should stop spending time getting better at the ones that didn’t excite me.
— — — — — — — — — — — — —
If you enjoyed this post and want more like it, you should subscribe to me weekly creator journal, Blueprint. Each week, I share metrics, ideas, frameworks, and experiments designed to supercharge your thinking about content & brand building in the modern age.
Becoming one of one
The concept I’m most obsessed with right now is becoming one of one.
This is my only content strategy. All eggs are in this basket.
What does it mean to be one of one?
It means that you own your category. You are the best one like you. People know you because you’ve pioneered a new lane or become the best within it. You’re rare. You’re a unicorn.
Being one of one is where all the gold is.
When you become known for being one of one, people want to work with you because you’re you, not because you talk about a certain topic or have a certain skill.
The best example of this is Joe Rogan.
Joe Rogan has a podcast where he interviews interesting people. He also happens to have the biggest podcast in the world.
But there are plenty of other massive podcasts that interview interesting people…this isn’t what makes him one of one.
What makes him one of one is the unique combination of his interests…comedy + podcasting + MMA + bow hunting + science + UFOs…and skills…comedian + MMA blackbelt + FearFactor host + UFC commentator.
In the Venn Diagram of all the interests/skills in the world, Joe Rogan is the “best” with this unique combination.
Now surely there are people that are better (both deeper interest and more advanced skill) than Joe in each individual category (e.g., Royce Gracie [MMA], Cam Hanes [Bow Hunting], Dan Carlin [podcasting]), but no one is better at the unique intersection of all of them.
But this is where things get tricky…
Just because you have a unique set of interests/skills, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will be more successful than someone else with their own unique set in a different category.
For example, if you’re the “best” at the intersection of AI + theater, maybe your unique skills aren’t as well suited for internet scale as the person that’s best at the intersection of AI + sports.
When you layer on financial success, many more things come into play (e.g., market size, market interest, momentum, virality, growth, etc.).
But it will be much easier to become known as the AI + theater guy than just the AI guy.
And that’s because as the AI + theater guy, you have a more unique lens on the world.
Maybe you’re able to sing/perform as you talk about AI and that’s what the world wants.
The key to being one of one is owning your unique intersection of interests/skills.
The key to having massive financial success while being one of one is that you’re able to apply your unique intersection of interests/skills towards a business model that works in today’s world.
This helps explain why you often see “weird people” with little financial success become massively rich overnight when their niche becomes mainstream.
For example, in the early 2000s, the people at the intersection of sports + video games + commentary were likely poor and considered losers.
That’s because their “one of one” intersection was unique but not valuable to the world at that time.
Then esports got popular and all of a sudden those people were best positioned to capitalize on an emerging market model that the world wanted.
It’s not enough to be unique…you have to be unique at the right thing at the right time, or at least a time when there is a big enough niche of other people that will like you for that thing.
How to become one of one
Fortunately, there’s only one way to become one of one…find a unique set of interests/skills and become the best at them.
Interests are easiest when they’re authentic. It’s tough to pretend to be obsessed with something if you don’t actually like it.
Skills can be honed and developed from scratch.
The goal is then to pursue depth across all of these things based on your natural drift.
Eventually, if you keep pulling on those threads for long enough, you’ll become one of one at some unique intersection of them.
Hopefully the world/market is willing to pay for that unique intersection when you become that best at it.
It can be easy to overengineer this. I would say, just drift for a while and see what you like and then go hard into it.
Here’s an example of how I’m thinking about it…
My interests:
Product strategy/vision - thinking about the way products are designed and messaged to the world
Design - I love looking at amazing design
Business strategy - understanding and mapping how businesses win
Health - everything related to optimizing health
Tech/gear - physical & tech products
Sports - watching sports/playing sports
Psychology - thinking about why people do the things they do and how to persuade/compel/incentivize them in a business context
My current skills:
Storytelling - writing/visualizing a compelling story
Writing - Blueprint style, my POV on things
Idea generation - Coming up with new ways to solve nagging problems
Vision - Charting a new path of the future
Thinking in witty/metaphors - I think in metaphors
Shooting/flipping based drinking games - Sadly, I don’t think this will help me anymore
My desired skills (things I want to be better at):
Product design - to take a product from my vision to real
Video editing - to take a story from my vision to real
When you look at this combination of things, it’s not yet clear where the one of one sauce will come from.
But if I had to guess, in 10 years, I’ll be the best in the world at some combination of these things.
If I wasn’t excited about that reality, I should stop spending time getting better at the ones that didn’t excite me.
— — — — — — — — — — — — —
If you enjoyed this post and want more like it, you should subscribe to me weekly creator journal, Blueprint. Each week, I share metrics, ideas, frameworks, and experiments designed to supercharge your thinking about content & brand building in the modern age.
Becoming one of one
The concept I’m most obsessed with right now is becoming one of one.
This is my only content strategy. All eggs are in this basket.
What does it mean to be one of one?
It means that you own your category. You are the best one like you. People know you because you’ve pioneered a new lane or become the best within it. You’re rare. You’re a unicorn.
Being one of one is where all the gold is.
When you become known for being one of one, people want to work with you because you’re you, not because you talk about a certain topic or have a certain skill.
The best example of this is Joe Rogan.
Joe Rogan has a podcast where he interviews interesting people. He also happens to have the biggest podcast in the world.
But there are plenty of other massive podcasts that interview interesting people…this isn’t what makes him one of one.
What makes him one of one is the unique combination of his interests…comedy + podcasting + MMA + bow hunting + science + UFOs…and skills…comedian + MMA blackbelt + FearFactor host + UFC commentator.
In the Venn Diagram of all the interests/skills in the world, Joe Rogan is the “best” with this unique combination.
Now surely there are people that are better (both deeper interest and more advanced skill) than Joe in each individual category (e.g., Royce Gracie [MMA], Cam Hanes [Bow Hunting], Dan Carlin [podcasting]), but no one is better at the unique intersection of all of them.
But this is where things get tricky…
Just because you have a unique set of interests/skills, that doesn’t necessarily mean you will be more successful than someone else with their own unique set in a different category.
For example, if you’re the “best” at the intersection of AI + theater, maybe your unique skills aren’t as well suited for internet scale as the person that’s best at the intersection of AI + sports.
When you layer on financial success, many more things come into play (e.g., market size, market interest, momentum, virality, growth, etc.).
But it will be much easier to become known as the AI + theater guy than just the AI guy.
And that’s because as the AI + theater guy, you have a more unique lens on the world.
Maybe you’re able to sing/perform as you talk about AI and that’s what the world wants.
The key to being one of one is owning your unique intersection of interests/skills.
The key to having massive financial success while being one of one is that you’re able to apply your unique intersection of interests/skills towards a business model that works in today’s world.
This helps explain why you often see “weird people” with little financial success become massively rich overnight when their niche becomes mainstream.
For example, in the early 2000s, the people at the intersection of sports + video games + commentary were likely poor and considered losers.
That’s because their “one of one” intersection was unique but not valuable to the world at that time.
Then esports got popular and all of a sudden those people were best positioned to capitalize on an emerging market model that the world wanted.
It’s not enough to be unique…you have to be unique at the right thing at the right time, or at least a time when there is a big enough niche of other people that will like you for that thing.
How to become one of one
Fortunately, there’s only one way to become one of one…find a unique set of interests/skills and become the best at them.
Interests are easiest when they’re authentic. It’s tough to pretend to be obsessed with something if you don’t actually like it.
Skills can be honed and developed from scratch.
The goal is then to pursue depth across all of these things based on your natural drift.
Eventually, if you keep pulling on those threads for long enough, you’ll become one of one at some unique intersection of them.
Hopefully the world/market is willing to pay for that unique intersection when you become that best at it.
It can be easy to overengineer this. I would say, just drift for a while and see what you like and then go hard into it.
Here’s an example of how I’m thinking about it…
My interests:
Product strategy/vision - thinking about the way products are designed and messaged to the world
Design - I love looking at amazing design
Business strategy - understanding and mapping how businesses win
Health - everything related to optimizing health
Tech/gear - physical & tech products
Sports - watching sports/playing sports
Psychology - thinking about why people do the things they do and how to persuade/compel/incentivize them in a business context
My current skills:
Storytelling - writing/visualizing a compelling story
Writing - Blueprint style, my POV on things
Idea generation - Coming up with new ways to solve nagging problems
Vision - Charting a new path of the future
Thinking in witty/metaphors - I think in metaphors
Shooting/flipping based drinking games - Sadly, I don’t think this will help me anymore
My desired skills (things I want to be better at):
Product design - to take a product from my vision to real
Video editing - to take a story from my vision to real
When you look at this combination of things, it’s not yet clear where the one of one sauce will come from.
But if I had to guess, in 10 years, I’ll be the best in the world at some combination of these things.
If I wasn’t excited about that reality, I should stop spending time getting better at the ones that didn’t excite me.
— — — — — — — — — — — — —
If you enjoyed this post and want more like it, you should subscribe to me weekly creator journal, Blueprint. Each week, I share metrics, ideas, frameworks, and experiments designed to supercharge your thinking about content & brand building in the modern age.