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What Is This Guy Thinking?
My son sent me an Instagram post about this guy who is suiting up to play college football at 58. Immediately I thought it was AI-produced fantasy. But nope - it’s all true.
Via the Williamsport Sun Gazette:
Fifty-eight-year-old Tom Cillo of Williamsport says he has always loved competition.
“I’ve played sports since I was little,” said Cillo. That love of sports and competition will see the 6-foot, 227-lb Cillo suiting up to play football for the Lycoming College Warriors this season.
Read more…
Sure, he has run half marathons, done powerlifting & strongman events, so he might be 100% ready to take on those testosterone-filled youngsters…but seriously, WTF is he thinking!?!?
Maybe It’s His GenX-ity Showing
Emily Stewart, in Business Insider argues that GenX isn’t the forgotten generation, it’s the “Meh” Generation. In her exploration, there was a quote that really stood out - and maybe it explains our football hero’s gridiron ambitions despite what I can ONLY imagine is a lower back that is reminding him every morning that this is a really dumb idea…
GenX (is) left with a sort of generational middle child syndrome.
When you are the middle child, you’ve got Mom & Dad’s tester kid(s) who do everything 1st in front of you and the shin-biters creating a chaotic mess behind you. And you get ignored. (BTW, middle child here…)
I don’t think that ol’ Tom has a raging case of Glory Days, either. I don’t think he is trying to reach backwards and touch his youth, but rather, I think he is claiming his present & reaching forward towards his future.
Cillo said, “…in the past, I could come up with about 137 reasons not to do it…I feel like I reached a point where I need to start finding reasons to say, ’you know, how can I do it and why should I do it?’ and I’ve gone down that path…”
So, where are you right now?
Are you playing What’s Up by 4 Non-Blondes & Nirvana’s Teen Spirit on repeat trying to make sense of everything?
Or have you reached Tom Cillo-level enlightenment? Because your chapterneXt pretty much depends if you think its about f’ing time you say, “…you know, how can I do it and why should I do it?”
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Aggressive Tutorials As a Money Maker?
There is this content creator that shows up often on my social feeds, Applesauce & ADHD. She shares cooking demos and has a manner that she calls “aggressive tutorials”. At the end of each one she says, “I know what you are thinking - is it even good?” I sense that is where you might be now, but, rather, “will this even work?” or “can I even make money?”
Well, that’s what we will talk about this week.
You’ve gone through the process of thinking about where your strengths are. You’ve thought about what you could imagine being happy spending reasonable time on. You’ve taken those things and looked at them through the lens of solving a problem or creating value. Cool. You’ve already done some real entrepreneurial heavy lifting! Now, the last important step - will anyone pay you for it? I mean, sure, you could do it for free, but that’s not really building a business, that’s volunteering. Of course volunteering is a good thing to do, but not what we are talking about here. We’re talking about creating something sustainable, where your efforts and energy translate into actual income
So, how do you figure out the income possibility?
Similar to what we talked about around the question of does it solve a problem or provide value - Ask! Read! Search! Test it out in the real world. Ask around, do some searches, read what’s already out there. Don’t be shy about throwing it out to your network: “Hey, if there were something like this available, would you spend money on it?” Pay attention not just to what people say but how they say it - do they light up, or do they give you a polite “hmm, maybe”? Look to see if something similar already exists, and if so, how successful it seems to be. Success doesn’t mean you can’t do it too - in fact, it often means there’s solid demand - but you’ll want to notice what gaps you could fill or how you could put your own spin on it.
And finally, be your own best test case.
Imagine if this product or service already existed and you stumbled across it - would you be willing to pay for it? If the answer is yes, that’s a decent signal. If the answer is no, then ask why not - too expensive, not compelling enough, not interesting? Sometimes the most useful step is realizing what would make you hesitate, because your potential customers might be thinking the exact same thing.
Remember This Old Commercial?
They told two friends & they told two friends & they told two friends…it sold a metric ton of shampoo - maybe it will help us here at chapterneXt. Forward the email to anyone & everyone you know, or copy this link:
We appreciate it!
Seriously, forward this email to all your friends!