🤗 What is more important to you than being liked?
📆 Join our free Summer Pivot Office Hours Pop-up — starts June 3 at 1pm ET
Hi Friends,
📆 TL;DR in case you’re skimming: Navigating a Pivot-in-progress? Wondering what steps to take next? Join us for a free monthly summer office hours pop-up featuring our wonderful Pivot Coaches :) Register here to join us on June 3 at 1pm ET »
Big thanks to all who commented on the last edition of PivotList, “Would you feel dejected if performing to an audience of three?” (Hint: not if you had my husband’s mindset.) I was delighted to know it hit a nerve! It’s a reminder we all need. I followed up on that with a message to Free Timers that might resonate with you, too:
In Chapter Two of Haruki Murakami’s 2007 memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Murakami describes closing the bar he owned to shift his lifestyle, allowing him to go to bed earlier and focus on writing in the morning when at his energetic best. This was often at the expense of forming relationships with people in his extended network, who resented that he rarely said yes to invitations. He writes:
“I’ve consistently considered this invisible, conceptual relationship [with my readers] to be the most important thing in my life.
In other words, you can’t please everybody.
Even when I ran my bar I followed the same policy. A lot of customers came to the bar. It one out of ten enjoyed the place and said he’d come again, that was enough. If one out of ten was a repeat customer, then the business would survive. To put it the other way, it didn’t matter if nine out of ten didn’t like my bar. This realization lifted a weight off my shoulders. Still, I had to make sure that the one person who did like the place really liked it. In order to make sure he did, I had to make my philosophy and stance clear-cut, and patiently maintain that stance no matter what.”
💬 What is more important to you than being liked? Especially if it means being loved by one out of the proverbial ten?
📘 Related Reads
Don’t miss mega-bestseller The Courage to Be Disliked
Fawning by Dr. Ingrid Clayton
One of my favorites, Natalie Lue’s Joy of Saying No.
You might also appreciate my seven-part Rolling in Doh essay series, From Fawning to Flopping to Phoenixing. Start here:
🎧 Related Episodes
🎉 Recently Featured: AI-Ready or Not
I’m honored to be the kick-off returning guest for long-time Pivoter Travis L. Scott’s new podcast direction, AI-Ready or Not. In it, we discuss reverse prompting, starting small, self-improving agents, avoiding slop output, and how key Free Time principles come to life through experimenting with custom agents:
👉 If you’re interested in learning and practicing alongside fellow small business owners, join our twice-monthly AI-focused office hours for paid Free Time subscribers. Office hours are on the first and third Wednesdays of every month at 12 p.m. ET. Sessions are not recorded, but we distribute detailed notes afterward.
📆 Upcoming Events: Summer Office Hours Pop Up
Navigating a Pivot-in-progress? Wondering what small steps to take next? Join us for a free monthly summer office hours pop-up featuring our wonderful Pivot Coaches :) The sessions will be held on the first Wednesday of June, July, and August.
Register here to join us on June 3 at 1pm ET! And for July and August »
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We’re wishing you well with all of your Pivots-in-progress!
