A social media marketing blog claims that you shouldn’t apply for any job available, even if you have some experience in the field and even in these economic times. Instead of spreading yourself too thin on all accounts, Annelie Näs states that during the young stage of a career you should pick your niche, narrow it down even further and then go for it like a bull seeing red. How refreshing! When everything in the news is doom and gloom, it’s good to see someone sticking to their guns and ploughing the future they would like to have.
This also explains why it hasn’t worked for me so far, I’ve been going about it completely wrong. I have experience in technical writing, graphic design, journalism, sub-editing and (perhaps the most fun of all) selling timber furniture and because of this pile of jobs, I’ve applied for everything under the sun. Yet all I want to do is take photos for a living.
In looking for other things, my lust for photography “cordial” has been so diluted it’s tasteless. Wow, the metaphor is killing me.
So how do you pick your niche? My gut tells me to just go with something you love but I’ve read Tim Ferriss so much that I have a little Tim on my shoulder when ever I make a decision and little Timmy would say to pick a niche that no one else has exploited, find mentors and copy their foot prints.
Three simple things that I challenge you to address today:
- Pick a niche that you love. Only apply yourself to that.
- Find a mentor or several. If you can’t do that, read auto-biography books by people whose career you want to emulate.
- Take notes and copy their foot prints.
If you haven’t read the 4-Hour Work Week, read the blog and see if you like what Tim does.