We spend a lot of time trying to get the “big fish” to notice us, but is it worth it?
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I woke up alone yesterday.
Which led to a tiny panic, because I had fallen asleep with my girlfriend next to me.
She had moved to the couch.
“You wouldn’t get off your phone,” she told me. “That screen is so bright. I need to sleep!”
Fair enough, I thought as I crawled back into bed.
I looked at the clock: 3 A.M.
My body was tired, but my brain was wide awake. I rolled over and grabbed my phone. It may have been 3 A.M., but this was my time to study.
Open Instagram. Search Mark Cuban. Scroll.
Search Gary Vaynerchuk. Scroll.
Search Daymond John. Scroll.
At the end of the day, influencers are rarely the people who move the needle in our life. Our success hardly depends on their attention.
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I was looking for something very specific.
All three of these guys are investors, and I assume that they’re getting ideas pitched at them left and right.
I was curious to see if they ever responded to a pitch that came at them through Instagram.
There were plenty of pitches, that’s for sure. They hurdled in from people of every age, and ranged from a simple ask to a beg. The pitches were sometimes very specific, while others were cryptic. Some were bearable, others were tough to stomach.
And none of them were given a reply.
After scrolling for several hours, I came to a conclusion.
Some people–including me that night–spend too much time following top influencers.
If only I can get their attention, we think, then I’ll make it big.
As I scrolled, I thought about how hopeless some people may feel when they can’t catch the attention of that one influencer. I imagined how nervous that person might have felt as they crafted their Instagram pitch to Cuban, Vaynerchuk, or John.
Not everyone feels this way about connecting with influencers, of course.
But many do.
At the end of the day, influencers are rarely the people who move the needle in our life. Our success hardly depends on their attention.
Our success ultimately depends on the attention we give to our work, not the amount of attention our work gets for us.
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Photo: Pixabay