The guy who invented the ship also invented the shipwreck

I don't know who initially said this, but I just heard Seth Godin say it in a recent talk. The context is what if you put yourself out there with an idea or a creation and it gets rejected?

What if the thing you're completely obsessed with that you know will be your greatest achievement actually fails?

Seth goes on to say, "You're either in or you're out. Either you want to play this game or you don't… Almost every best seller is a surprise best seller, because we have no idea what will work. Every company that breaks through and changes everything - all the experts said had no chance. Art doesn't work because we did something conventional and predictable. Art works because we connected."

It's irrelevant how flashy or fancy of a product you have created. No one cares. The only thing that we care about is connection. How can you connect us?

How many hours each day is your phone in your hand?

What are you doing on your phone?

Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Skype, Twitter, Tinder, email or text, the ONLY thing we obsess all day over is connecting with other people. Sometimes we even use the phone to make phone calls to directly connect with each other. Try it, it's fun. 

I realize I went off topic, but that's nothing new. It all comes together. 

We have to do more than just show up every day. Putting yourself out there is risky. People might hate your ideas.

People might love your ideas. 

This I know is true - people need your ideas. 

What's the one thing in common to all the massively popular youtube videos/blogs/instagram accounts?

If you look at the comments there are tons of people leaving terribly negative comments. Often not even critiquing the actual content, but absolutely trash talking the person who created it. 

Remember how many people absorbed the content and enjoyed and appreciated it that didn't comment something terrible. 

For every bad comment I'm confident there were 30-50+ that got precisely what they needed at that moment.

You don't need to create world-changing art or content. You need to create things that connect people to other people, new ideas, or just connect them to new ideas within themselves. 

If you do that, you will change the world.