“What I learned from Lenny Bruce was: You don’t need the entire audience…. If you’re too needy of that entire audience, you won’t find your own style. [When I saw Lenny Bruce, he] had only a third of the audience with him. And he didn’t mind that at all,” comedian David Steinberg on Fresh Air, 2007.
I recalled this quote when I was putting together the recent post on feedback. It seems sensible to try to steer to the middle of the road–to try to make everyone happy. (This is a mistake-avoidance strategy.) But it limits the value you have and dilutes your deepest advantages. To be all you can be, you have to follow your inner voice, say what you think, and accept the consequences that some people (maybe most people) won’t agree. This is something that contrarian entrepreneurs know deeply.
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