You’re a photographer, or a freelancer or starting a business. How much art and goods must you sell to make a living? Will you ever be able to serve everybody?

When you’re looking to engage with everyone it’s hard to really delight anyone.
And if you’re not the essential, one-of-a-kind specialist changemaker you barely get the chance to engage with the market.

What if you were specific about who you were seeking to serve and precisely what change you were trying to make?

Organize your project, your life, and your organization around the minimum.
What’s the smallest market you can survive on?

Kevin Kelly in his famous article, 1000 True Fans, said that by finding 1000 people who’ll buy everything you make, you can create an above average living with your art.
That’s not a million or ten thousand or even 5000. It’s 1000 raving fans and people connecting with you and your work.

Thought leader Seth Godin also recently wrote:
“Identify the scale and find the corner of the market that can’t wait for your attention. Go to their extremes. Find the position where you alone are the perfect answer and make change happen. Change that matters enough so other people cant help but talk about it.”

Lean entrepreneurship is built around the idea of the minimal viable product. Figure out the simplest useful version of your product, engage with the market, and then improve and repeat.

Find a fit between what you make and what they want.

That, and only that, separates successful projects from unsuccessful ones.
Are there people in the world who want you to succeed so badly that they’re willing to pay you to produce the change you seek to make?

Be specific. Your work is not for everyone. It’s only for those who signed up for the journey.

George Kroustallis // Minorstep