Choose Curiosity at all Odds…

You are often told to niche down when creating content or starting a business.

But I disagree.

In this article, I discuss my reasons why I don’t believe niching down is the answer.

And.

Neither should you.

Curiosity at its Finest

Do you remember the last time you looked at something and were in awe?

Do you remember what that felt like, tasted like?

I sure do…It happens to me all the time.

You see… Curiosity to me is part of my existence, it’s the reason why I am excited to try new things.

Learning something new is just as exciting as learning to ride a bike, or driving a car the very first time.

I get this feeling of happiness, intrigue, and euphoria. No matter how puzzling the new thing I am looking at, touching, or thinking about is… I absolutely love it.

It’s new to me.

And that is exciting.

Now, some may argue this is Shiny Object Syndrome at work… maybe it is but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Maybe that’s why I love art, creating things, problem-solving. It’s the sheer joy of finding solutions and looking for the next problem to understand and solve.

Without curiosity, what are we really? You wouldn’t have half the things we all take for granted. Cars, books, food, travel and so on.

If I can share one thing with you, it would be to embrace your curiosity. For as long as possible. If it’s been lost for some time now… Know you can get it back…

The question is then, why is it when we create content, or are trying to gain traction with our business are we told to niche down? This is more complicated then what is seems but lets distill this further.

Curiosity as a Distraction

Although you might love to question things, find answers and provide solutions… you might be distracted as hell and getting nothing done…

The opposite of David Allen and Getting Things Done. Is curiosity to blame for this… maybe… partly.

If you are not too careful, curiosity may cause you to spin out of control. As if you’re in space, just twirling away with no way to stop it.

You see… I love to explore like the best of them. And maybe you do too. But, with that comes a lesson on restraint and goal-oriented thinking.

If you continue to randomly jump from thing to thing, without ever re-establishing a home base, you’ll always be floating around, lost, tired, hungry, and frustrated.

It happens to the best of us. For example, this morning alone, I have read two chapters of The Boron Letters, read another dozen pages of Marketing Psychology, wrote a daily journal, explored caffeine and coffee (future blog post) and now writing this article.

This all occurred in a two-hour span…

My curiosity just led me around as I followed along without any real questions or directions. Now for me, I call this a productive morning thus far.

But to others, ADHD and focus or other words jump out.

I mean, do I have a touch of ADHD, never medically diagnosed, but maybe… Does that change how I explore topics or things of interest on a daily basis? No, it doesn’t.

So, how do I combat the directionless spin that sometimes happens?

Corny but true…

I think of the things I want to accomplish the night before. I write out a task list, of must do or high priority items that must be done.

I then order them in terms of priority and tackle these items first thing in the morning when I feel most energized and clear-minded to tackle them.

Curiosity in Business, AKA Niches

In the business atmosphere, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard niche down, niche, niche, niche… Why???

The narrative first starts on a smaller scale. Find a smaller segment of the population interested in a subject.

Emerge yourself in that community. Seek out pain points/problems, and start to help provide value insights or solutions into these areas.

Then, if suitable, you can create a product or service to help alleviate their problems. The solution, you hope, is big enough that they will happily pay you for the solution.

After that, you can then start to expand into other topics and ar grow your product or service “cluster.” Think of a cluster as a spider’s web, slowly intertwining and expanding.

That’s the general advice you often see, hear or read about online.

But it’s not as easy as it seems and, quite frankly limits curiosity… Personally, I rather start with the broader audience, giving me and maybe you, an opportunity to seek creative solutions that appeal to the masses.

Still intertwining into the community but not niching down so small that it’s hard to really gain traction, or at least traction at a faster scale compared to the larger audience.

I want to be able to jump from branch to branch like a squirrel hunting acorns I can hide for those cold wintery days.

Final Thoughts

To me, curiosity is part of our DNA. It’s what makes us create really unique solutions to problems new and old.

It gives us new iPhones or VR headsets, autonomous driving, and more.
You should embrace curiosity.

Really look deep inside and figure out what you’re curious about and why.

Focus on that feeling and feed that idea, which can translate into a product, service or solution.