An earlier post I did on loving obscurity, focused on obscurity as a place to get better. Check out “Wine | Why You Must Love Obscurity” here
Not taking advantage of your season of obscurity in pursuing dreams or vision robs you of greater opportunities when the break you hope for comes. Obscurity can be used to enable you and your vision. Don’t moan about what you don’t have. Don’t worry about not having the attention of the world. At least not for now…
One of the reasons there are many “one hit wonders” is because they never thought and planned beyond their possible success. Some things just go viral. They take off at an astronomical pace and they quickly overrun the dreamers and visionaries.
when you’re out of sight you must be just as driven in building the future for your dream / vision
There are things I wish would ‘just take off’. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. Unfortunately there are seasons of obscurity. Think about the Facebook phenomenon. This social network has taken over the world. When you look at such success remember: Facebook was once a college dorm project.
Apple was once a garage project. Nelson Mandela was once a little boy chasing cattle in an obscure Xhosa village, in South Africa. The list goes on… Why is it that some of the huge successes today are still standing. You guessed it: Obscurity.
Obscurity at different stages of the growth of some of the great organizations and dreams we admire, gave them time to get ready for success. Obscurity can help you build a dream and enterprise that will stand strong when success comes. It will guarantee that you don’t become another “one hit wonder”.
Obscurity gives you time to clarify who you are before the world starts asking.
Obscurity gives you time to build structure into your dream or vision. It is a great opportunity to work through how you will manage success. It may be completely different when the break actually does come, but it means that you some sort of structure. A little structure is what separates the one hit wonders from sustained success.
“Slow” allows you build structure to support your success. The pace of success and the excitement of the big break can be so demanding you overlook structure.
Leaders, artists and other dreamers spend a lot of time getting their product right. They focus heavily on perfecting the offering. While this is great, it is incomplete if there is no plan for dealing with success in the development of your “product”.
What structures will you have in place to deliver greater demands for your product when it succeeds? What change will you need to keep out in front for your product or offerings to be scalable? How will you handle your profits or gains? What are you going to do with a greater platform and influence?
Love obscurity, it gives you the opportunity to build structure to sustain your success. It guarantees that you will not be a “one hit wonder”… only if you love and use it before success hits.
[ image by: MyNameMattersNot | cc ]
A dear friend directed me to your site. I’m currently walking to the end of a season of life that has been all-consuming, and frankly, I was having a difficult time just being able to walk away. I think I’m more afraid of having the time now to actually focus on things that I want; however, after reading your last post {wine} and this one, being able to put a name on this time {obscurity} has enabled me, in my heart at least, to move a little less hesitantly into the future. Thank you.
wow, thank you Monica for sharing. glad there is something you got out of it. praying for you in your transition period. all the best.