In a Zero Sum game, for me to win, you have to lose (or vice versa).
In a Zero Sum game, there is only so much of the pie.
A Zero Sum game is finite.
Zero Sum represents the old rules.
Old rules that are making way for new rules.
The web is not a Zero Sum game.
On the web, if I win, you no longer have to lose.
In fact, the opposite is true.
If I win, you can too.
Begin!
In the real world if you and I were both in the same industry selling similar products, we would be competitors.
If my real world business out muscles your real world business to secure the same real world customer – you lose.
Hence zero sum.
On the web however, you are no longer restricted to the local passerby who happens to walk past your storefront. Your marketplace can potentially be 6 billion people.
Hold on, you say.
Even if our businesses were online we are still potentially competing for the same customer base.
That my be true if you limited yourself to doing exactly the same thing online as you were doing offline ie. selling somebody else’s products.
However online, you no longer need to operate under the same constraints as you do in the real world.
For the first time in history, you can digitize….yourself.
Do you think that’s air you’re breathing?
The advent of the web and now the onslaught of social media has enabled the connection of people united by the most tenuous of bonds.
If there were only four other people on the planet passionate about brussel sprout & kim chi custard – you’d be able to find them and together enjoy your online asian veggie dessert conference!
The web now gives you a platform to connect with a market that only you can connect with.
So you believe in ‘The One’?
Only you think the way you think, react the way you react, process the way you process and see the world the way that you see it.
Who you are is unique.
And this uniqueness is the new currency in a socially hyper-connected world.
Social media has allowed individuality to pierce the corporate veil.
It is training consumers to no longer accept a faceless corporation.
This is good news – if you have a unique voice.
If there is something burning within you that needs to find expression there is now a market online that wants to go straight to the source.
The source of passion, creativity, ideas & inspiration.
You.
The more you take the easy road and copy everybody else – the more you will be drowned out in a sea of internet sameness, destined for obscurity.
The more you are uniquely you, the more you will be given the permission to connect with an audience that only you can connect with.
He is beginning to believe…
So go ahead and take the leap.
The more authoritative and relevant your unique expression online becomes, the greater reward you’ll get from two sources:
- People (social) - who’ll reward you with buzz, conversation, community & backlinks, and
- Technology (media) - who’ll reward you with higher search engine rankings and PageRank.
Even if you and I are both in the same industry online, my success doesn’t take away from yours.
Because I can’t be a better you than you.
And you can’t be a better me than me.
Since I can’t out-you you, it no longer costs me to confer my authority on you – by linking to you.
My fans might very well become your fans too.
And my PageRank might just rub off on you.
And vice versa.
And that’s OK.
If I win, you win and if you win, I win.
The web is not a Zero Sum game.
So take the leap.
We need you.
I need you.