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Loading ...By the time I was 13 I had been selling candy and comic books to my classmates for almost 3 years. Though I did quite well, I was itching to try something bigger, and that meant extending my reach beyond the walls of Math class.
This was the late 80s, so resources were limited for a 13 year old living in the country. I ordered all of the free information available in the work at home section of the Penny Saver (a free newspaper consisting entirely of ads), and started going to the library twice a week to read up on entrepreneurship. I was searching for a business idea that I could pull off at 13, and after literally hundreds of books, booklets, and information packets I decided to publish my own booklet on comic book collecting.
“Smart”
Since I was seven years old I’ve been an avid reader. I consumed 2 or 3 books a week during my childhood, including a large collection of “crazy facts” books and the Guinness Book of World’s Records (every year). By the time I was 13 I’d been reading 2-3 books a week for 6 years, and the breadth of my knowledge was astonishing for someone my age.
I knew how the stock market worked, why Beta had lost to VHS, why Apple was losing market share to the PC, and how double-entry accounting worked (although I couldn’t do double-entry accounting). But I had no idea how to start a business. With all of my book knowledge about the business world, I had no clue how to execute an idea.
I’d read several books on self-publishing and writing non-fiction, and I could have a really good conversation about them, but I’d synthesized the information for knowledge-sake, rather than to act on it. That made a big difference.
And so it continued for months…I didn’t have the guts to start writing the booklet for fear I wouldn’t know what to do next. Instead, I visited more libraries and sought magazines that did nothing but rehash information I already knew. I filled my head with the same information from piles of resources, but I still couldn’t get things going.
After months I finally took the leap. I spent 60 hours researching and writing the booklet. I printed it at Kinko’s, placed a few classified ads, and sold 9 copies at $15 apiece, breaking even on the cost of printing and advertising. Financially it was a wash, but I learned a valuable lesson.
The Question
13 years later I went through a nearly identical scenario when I started my consulting firm, The Numa Group.
I’d read stacks of book about entrepreneurship, startups, management, leadership, consulting, and running a service business, but I had no idea how to get started. I was waiting for the one book that was going to kick me into action by telling me exactly how to proceed given my skills, strengths, goals, and financial situation. Alas, that book never appeared. I finally realized that I needed to take a leap of faith and go to a place where no one else could lead me.
Through these experiences I realized the following:
Some people are consumers by nature; they consume vast quantities of knowledge purely for learning’s sake. Others are producers; they consume knowledge with the intent of one day acting on the knowledge and producing something, be it a book, a song, a blog, a startup, etc… Neither is better than the other.
The key is to answer one question: which are you?
I want to say again that neither is better than the other. If we were all consumer we wouldn’t have anything to watch; if we were all producers no one would be reading our blogs or listening to our podcasts. What matters is:
There is a huge benefit to finding out if you are a producer or a consumer.
Which Are You?
If you convince yourself that the zillions of books, blogs and podcasts you’ve consumed over the past 2/3/4 years are in preparation for that glorious day when you’ll tell your boss to stick it in his ear because you’re heading out the door to starting your own company, you are wasting your time. Don’t read another blog post about startups, Micro-ISVs, or the business of software. Once you’re done reading this post (or even before), go start building something (a product, a blog, a company…). Because until you do, the knowledge you’re gaining is all but worthless to you.
But if you realize that one of the pleasures in your life is to read about code/startups/entrepreneurs/music, then embrace that you are a consumer. Knowledge for knowledge’s sake is not bad as long as you realize that you are not working towards an end beyond your own edification, which again, is not a bad thing.
Likewise, if you’re someone who has an unquenchable desire to produce something, then stop reading about other people, and start doing it yourself. Seriously, don’t read another blog post, tweet, or issue of Fast Company until you’ve made a visible move towards that goal you so desperately want, but think that reading and dreaming about will somehow make it come true. Once you’ve made that single action towards advancing your idea, you can come back and read a few more posts.
While it’s true you’re likely a mixture of both types and will experience fluctuation in your ratio of production vs. consumption from one month to the next, unless your name is Robert Scoble you have to choose one or the other.
To recap:
- Consuming for the pure love of learning is absolutely ok.
- Producing purely because you have a fire that won’t die until you do is fine, too.
- But don’t kid yourself about who you are.
If you’ve been reading startup blogs for years and never started anything, it’s time to accept that you’re a consumer.
If you have 50 software product ideas and your hard drive is littered with folders containing 30 lines of code from each, you’re a consumer (or at least a producer who has trouble finishing things).
And if you figure out that you are a producer, stop daydreaming about the day you’ll make things happen. Start making it happen in the next 30 days, or forever hold your peace.
21 comments ↓
This post was spot on as my childhood was similar to yours. Great post!
Cheers.
I had a moment similar to yours two months ago, when I finally decided to take the plunge and start a blog!
What is interesting is that the idea takes on a life of its own that you couldn’t have anticipated while it only existed in your head.
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Rob,
I like the gist of what you’re saying but I’m not sure the producer/consumer roles are as mutually exclusive as you’re making them out to be. I produce blog posts, songs, podcasts, movies, products, events, etc. But I also consume all of the above and I know my creations would be considerably weaker if I didn’t listen a lot more than I talk.
That being said- the one key thing I wholly endorse from your post: CONGRUENCY. I’ve seen people work themselves into a funk of cognitive dissonance by holding this idea that they’re a closet entrepreneurs that just haven’t acted on their ambitions yet. I agree that it’s okay to learn for learning’s sake and not everyone needs to implement stuff and become a producer. What’s unhealthy though is to live a perpetually conflicted life with these pipe dreams that you never act on. So bottomline I would echo your charge of:
“don’t read another blog post until you’ve taken some small concrete step towards achieving your dream, if you’re really going to do it. Otherwise, admit you’re not really going to do it, be okay with that fact and shed the cognitive baggage that makes you feel guilty about not doing it.”
sean
[…] Time Tracker extension but it was small and unobtrusive. Now I recognize I am 50% split between consumer and producer. So I work to create a lifestyle that ties them together. And I regularly evaluate major timesinks: […]
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I think that thinking this way is dangerous. You are what you want to be, not what you were “born to do”. You just have to want enough.
Nice reading, though I don’t think it’s an XOR equation
But you definitely struck a nerve which I can recognize myself in regards to if I travel 5 years back in time
I think though (for me) it was more out of FEAR than not knowing where to start…
@Sean & Thomas - While I agree the roles are not mutually exclusive, producers will consume a lot less than consumers, and making the commitment to be a producer requires sacrificing a lot of your consumption time. From the post:
“While it’s true you’re likely a mixture of both types and will experience fluctuation in your ratio of production vs. consumption from one month to the next, unless your name is Robert Scoble you have to choose one or the other.”
@Jeremias - I don’t think it’s a “born to do” situation…wanting to be a producer can certainly push you in the right direction even if you aren’t predisposed to produce. Likewise for consuming (though I would argue we’re all predisposed to consume). If you have the desire you can play either role, it’s not a genetic certainty.
What about those that don’t actively produce or consume knowledge? I would say that is a much larger divide than between producers and consumers.
One thing I will admit, when you are really producing, you don’t have time to be much of a consumer. I think the exclusive nature of being a producer or a consumer has to do with which mode you’re in at a given point in time.
I think it takes a certain special unpredictable combination of experience, knowledge, inspiration and opportunity to make that switch happen.
Interesting and concise assessment Rob. Very informative. I figure I am a mixture of Consumer-Producer but tending more toward Producer, so forgive me if I enjoyed reading this blog ;-). I do agree with you assertion that it is far worthier to start off with enough information to know that one is not screwing up and proceed to action and FINISH things that have been started. Excellent refresher mate. Thanks.
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A good read and probably pushing me to decide.
At the same time, as like other commentators, I agree that you could be both consumer and producer (in some areas different products/entities; in some same entities)
Joseph
I agree with you — sort of. Yes, you need to know what your primary purpose is, and to grow where you’re planted. Just as you need to figure out what it is you’re good at (which is a process of naming your talents, not a list of technologies).
But as @sean said (Hi, Sean!), few people are only consumers or only producers. And people who are only one or the other suffer from an inability to serve or understand the other viewpoint. “I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read,” said Samuel Johnson, and that quote can be generalized far beyond writing.
In other words, I don’t think you can be a producer without also being a consumer. Whether it’s possible to exist the other way around… hmm, maybe.
Great article Rob, and very well put together. Probably one of the most accurate and quality blog posts I’ve read in a long while.
I totally agree if you want to produce something the first step and often the hardest is to actually stop thinking about it and start doing. Just like with software development you can get stuck trying to gather all the possible user requirements and create the perfect requirements document. There comes a point where you just have to start writing code otherwise you will never get anywhere. I think 37 signals sum it up in their book Getting Real
That’s where sayings like ideas are a dime a dozen come in. Most people never execute. And if they do, it’s rarely past 3 months. Just look at blogs, the blogosphere is littered with blogs that are 3 months or less in age. It happens all the time.
You need two traits to start and succeed in business.
1. The ability to execute. That is make the decision to start and actually start.
2. Perseverance. Going back to the 3 months. You need to persevere, even through the tougher times. Nothing is free.
well I think there is another category which is the producer without an idea. I believe this is true because I’m right there. I have come up with a lot of great ideas but only to find out someone else already implemented it and it’s what I was thinking of. In today’s world ideas aren’t that new everything is a mix of something else or a redo of something else.
So I guess this third group will be call the “uninspired” or something
PS: kudus, on the theme it seems we stole it from the same place
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