Expand Your Swim Lane

The Basic Idea: It’s very hard to be known for nothing special, so you need to pick a “swim lane” and stick with it. But keep making it wider.

Explanation: I’m confident you will never see a tweet that says: John Doe is one of the best generalists I know. Hire him.

If you want to exert positive influence, you need to be known for something specific. This means you need to specialize. (Example: I call myself a social media ghostwriter for entrepreneurs.)

This does not, however, mean you need to specialize in just one thing, forever.

20 years ago, I wrote a book on personalization. In 2012, I co-authored one about the impact of disruptive innovation on customer experience. They are very different subjects, but in each case, I worked hard to master each subject before writing the books.

If all you do is master one topic or niche, and then you repeat the same lessons again and again and again, eventually you will become predictable and (sorry) boring. You will stop learning. You will stop growing.

So, pick your swim lane, then keep making it bigger.

Example: Seth Godin started out as a permission marketing expert, but he didn’t stop there. By relentlessly publishing book after book, he stretched his creativity and swim lane.

In 2013, Seth put it simply. “I notice things, name them, and sometimes provoke people to make a ruckus. I’ve published 17 books as a solo author, started a few internet companies and I like to teach.”