As you'll read here, 92% of all U.S. kids have a web presence by the time they are age 2. And 82% of all kids world-wide do.
That's if the survey is scientifically valid. Let's pretend that it is.
Watch it. All those kids are going to be writing eBooks soon and posting boring webcam tutorials. And … some fascinating videos, too.
This is the New Reality.
We're all publishers and pundits and public personalities now.
Consider newspapers — those that still exist. Consider the (once) Big 3 TV networks. Consider traditional publishing and all the other long-revered information-dissemination institutions. All are desperate ghosts of their glorious selves of just 25 years ago. And they don't have a ghost of a chance of surviving the next 25.
At least not as meaningful, impactful players. Not as the bestowers of significance and celebrity. Not as the controllers and gatekeepers of the public psyche. Not as the Definers of the Dialog.
We are rapidly evolving a New Reality and a bare-butt ragged, rugged New Economy.
One where everyone knows they have a message. And everyone is equally empowered to express it. Of course, not all are equally qualified to do so. But that ain't stopping nobody. And that makes it all even more chaotic and interesting.
The quick shift from institutional power to a free-for-all of individual power couples with increasing globalization. And the combination is fearsome and wonderful.
It is certain to give rise to interesting, diverse and beneficial socio-spiritual movements and innovations. And, of course, we are witnessing and experiencing lots of handwringing as we grope and leap and tumble our way forward. Or as we are pushed and pulled into the future, against our will, struggling and resisting. As we are forced to acknowledge that the Old Order truly is crumbling. And, for the most part, is not salvageable.
Not just media and publishing are in total upheaval and transition.
Nearly all the powerful, institutional culture that provided at least an illusion of stability and security is failing. We can't count on GM and IBM and Bank of America to be there for us. Or for a benevolent Uncle Sam to hold open a safety net.
No more careers-for-life with programmed raises and promotions, and gold watches and pensions bestowed at the end.
In the New Reality, we're all learning that it is up to us to create our own jobs. Find our own place. Set our own pace. Gather our tribes. Create simple, practical solutions. Serve each other and the planet as ingeniously and meaningfully as we can.
This does present tremendous opportunity. Even as we lament the loss of the limiting but comforting institutions. The ones that told us in the last century how good and smart and safe and secure we were. The ones that ruled the Industrial- and Space- and Information- Age economies that we took for granted.
The playing fields are increasingly crowded and increasingly level. And we're left to fend for ourselves.
The fend-for-yourself, make-your-own-way ethic and principle was always in operation. But now, all of us have the technology and the means to do so in massive and potentially effective ways. And that is a game-changer.
For example, I heard a publishing industry executive state two weeks ago that last year as many books were self-published as were published by mainstream traditional publishers. And most of the self-published books were produced via inexpensive, highly efficient Print on Demand ("P.O.D".) technology.
A lot of them were crap. A lot were not. And that is the new reality.
Smart, accomplished editors sitting in a dozen buildings in Manhattan no longer get to choose what authors and which books will be foisted into the public consciousness and nudged toward the New York Times Bestseller lists.
They can't. Not when absolutely anyone with $40 to spare can publish and market a book that will be available on Amazon.com and through major bookstores nationwide. Three weeks from today.
iUniverse — the first major P.O.D. player — was founded in 1999. That's just 11 years ago. Now in numbers of books published each year, P.O.D. publishing rivals Avon and Harper Collins and all the rest of the big-name publishers combined. That is one rapid shift in paradigm. No wonder traditional publishing executives are wandering around wide-eyed and dazed, exclaiming to one another, "Omigod, Omigod, Omigod, what should we do?"
The best strategy to cope with this monstrous cross-institutional shift, loss of influence and transfer of power, I think, is to:
- Reach deep inside yourself.
- Draw out who it truly is you are really here to be. What it is you are really meant to express and offer. And,
- Begin designing and piecing into place the joyful infrastructure — platform, business, life — that lets you express that, live that, share that, and grow that… profitably. That lets you serve that, effectively. And lets you refine and develop and expand and interact in and around that in ways that will thrill you. And others.
Design a life that you'll love to live inside for years to come.
Because it's up to you. And because, when we're all celebrities, we really aren't celebrities at all, you know. We're just a crowd of individuals. Serving individuals in the crowd. In an increasingly open, public way. So design for yourself the framework to do it YOUR way. Well. To be the most effective, and fulfilled and fulfilling you that you can be.
And make it come true. Bit by bit. Leap by leap. Adjusting, constructively, with the advances and learnings and changes you encounter along the way.
I'm rolling out a new coaching program to help you do just that. Because it's time.
Because, when you open your eyes and heart to the true opportunities presented by the New Economy, by the New Information Reality, you recognize that you are welcome to play in very nice ponds of your own choosing. You can even leap from pond to pond and back. You can be YOU.
You can be PAID to be you.
You can be a highly welcomed Big Fish if you get this right.
So recognize that you have this choice. You have this opportunity. Even as it becomes a necessity.
And choose your ponds well.
Choose ponds that are sustainable and have qualities that appeal to your higher nature. Where you are appreciated for who you innately are and what you really have to offer. And plot out how you can make — and continue to make — big, welcome splashes there for years and years to come.
You'll be glad you did.
I'll share at least one promising way to do that, soon.
