Physics is wonderful. Everything happens for a verifiable reason. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
First-principles thinking is a brilliant way to truly understand how something works. It allows you to predict with accuracy what will happen.
Here I explain how you can fundamentally predict what creative pursuits will or won’t work and engineer them for success. We’re going to do this by first understanding physics.
Density of an object determines its position
Within any liquid or gas, things rise and fall according to their density in comparison with their surroundings:
A balloon filled with a gas lighter than its surroundings rises (this is basically the same as a bubble in water).
A stone in a lake of water sinks directly to the bottom.
The bubble will always rise and the stone will always fall, you can’t break the rules of physics.
Note - Something enclosed within a solid will not move.
If you put a diamond or a marshmallow inside a brick wall, neither will move at all.
Success is related to the competition pool
The same is true for a piece of content or a business or even a person. Density can be translated to value or quality. The liquid medium is the market of competition. Those offering better quality rise and the bad falls.
A creator on YouTube, Insta or a podcast will go up or down in popularity compared to the pool of other creators in their topic, on their platform.
There are a few fixed walls where there is no movement.
A talented salmon fisher in the desert won’t have a chance to shine because there are no fish.
He might be the best or the worst salmon fisher ever to walk the Sahara, his talent won’t move his success an inch.
This seems easy yet so many of us make businesses or content where we aren’t the best. We find our efforts lead nowhere and we get confused (myself included).
Stand out
The wise choose their battles. The more niche you can go, the less competition you have to fight against.
To make your content more niche, you can diversify on topic, location, language, length, style.
To make a business more niche, it really depends on the industry but there are plenty of ways, generally starting with a more specific audience (also you can read about the concept of bundling / unbundling I discussed before).
Whatever you are creating needs to offer something original or better than the medium it exists in. What are the direct things on offer at the same time to the consumer that you get compared to?
Open Mic
If you’re a good singer at an open mic surrounded by a bunch of idiots, you’ll look great. If Ed Sheeran, Adele and Beyonce turn up and sing a song. People won’t just forget your name, they’ll forget you were there.
Okay, that’s obvious…
Writing
If you’re writing for a blog or SubStack is good but competing against better writers in the same topic there is no reason for someone to read or share your ideas. Write well on a topic people don’t cover and has an unmet demand from readers, it will rise fast.
What can you do to offer a unique perspective that your audience hasn’t heard before?
Interviews
No one hires the middle candidate of the people who turn up for the interview. They hire the best person out of the selection they have on the day.
Out of THE SELECTION THEY HAVE.
You need to take note of the context. The pool in which you are compared.
Basically, if you do something you need to be better than those you are compared to. If you aren’t then find an area to work in which you are.
Adapt
Things don’t stay the same. What works today won’t work tomorrow as others realise how to beat what is already there. Timescales can happen over centuries to months on this
If your podcast is the same as it was before and new podcasts come in that are better, it will go down.
If you make a pitch deck now it needs to look good. Airbnb and Uber got away with ugly pitch decks 12 years ago. That is not today, now investors are swimming in pitch decks they need a way to filter them.
Laurel and Hardy were the OG of funny dancing on video. It took an entire film crew to record a not brilliantly in time video. If you made a similar video now no one would bat an eye-lid. Anyone can record a better and more synchronised silly dance on their phone.
Don’t compete against a solid wall
Like the marshmallow or a diamond inside a fixed wall. The density of these objects made no difference to their position.
Your talent could be amazing but completely wasted in your area, if you are a diamond it is important to work out where your value belongs.
A great singer in a tiny village might do better to go to Broadway or LA. There is competition but people go there to find great singers so there is a market for this talent.
There are also games you just can’t win - You could be the best candidate for a job but if the boss wants to hire her son you aren’t going to get the job.
You also can’t succeed in places where there are rules that go against you, even if the competition is low:
You can’t get people to pay for your naked videos on LinkedIn.
Yes, there are plenty of rich people looking for a distraction from real work and no competition. Also against terms of service.You can’t make a cannabis shop in the UK, simply illegal.
This is usually obvious but some people do seem to take the biscuit anyway.
Find opportunities where others expect walls
There is potential to really stand out in places where people conform to one way of doing things but actually, other things can be done.
So you can’t build an OnlyFans style business on LinkedIn. However, Amouranth has become the most successful OnlyFans earner mainly through using Twitch as an acquisition channel.
Back to the subject of LinkedIn which has mainly dry business content. I think a combination of humour and/or music in a video could really draw attention to a job advert or a fundraise where people don’t dare to be original.
In general, there is a really big opportunity to stand out in the areas where people expect conformity. Dare to be different.
You can’t kickstart as good as others
A final point - If you start a project and work hard to deliver something as good as what is already there. You won’t succeed.
You can’t copy what people are already doing and expect the same results.
There is no reason for consumers to give time, attention or money to your offering over the things they already have.
A balloon with a gas of the same density as the air around it doesn’t move at all.
If you start a project with no audience and are only as good as everything else, your audience won’t grow.
Therefore all your work will lead you to still have no audience.
This final point is super important. It’s so easy to look at success and think you can replicate it by doing the same thing. You will save yourself so much time by accepting this.
Personal example - Growth Mindset results
I’ve run the Growth Mindset podcast for over 5 years now.
Podcast
When I started my podcast it grew fast. I was one of the only people with a mindset podcast. Now there are loads of them. I have a good audience but my numbers per episode really haven’t shifted for 2 years.
For now, my podcast is as good as other options. So it isn’t rising and it isn’t falling. If I started the same podcast now I can tell you it wouldn’t go anywhere.
It’s time I changed format and delivered something beyond what new listeners can get from any other mindset podcast out there. If I don’t I will soon lose my audience as the competition changes.
My assistant started an Instagram account to go with the podcast a few years ago. It has zero traction. There is so much competition for ‘Mindset’ Instagram accounts. I don’t put time into it at all myself and there is nothing to make the content a level above what is already out there.
So many accounts post inspirational quotes and ways to change your thinking on Insta. Today you won’t get anywhere by starting an Insta account and posting nice positive mindset and wellness photos. People have enough content in their newsfeed already and this doesn’t stand out.
If you posted great Reels which is a new format other creators aren’t all over yet, then maybe you have a chance. Competing in an area where there isn’t a competition.
Conclusion - Context is everything
You don’t need to be incredible at what you do. You need to be incredible at choosing the context in which you do it.
If you can find an area where you are better than your surroundings, you will always succeed.
Like water pushing a bubble of air to the surface, if your work is better than what it is around, it is bound to rise above the rest.
It is just physics and first principles. You can’t break the laws of physics.
You are not Neo, there is a spoon.
Don’t just work on your talents, also work out where they belong.
Yours physically,
Sam
Good places for inspiration:
Purple Cow - Seth Godin
Eating The Big Fish - Adam Morgan
What specifically inspired me:
I was watching Mary Poppins over Christmas and people were holding onto helium balloons and floating upwards. I immediately wrote this piece because isn’t the connection obvious?
“You don’t need to be incredible at what you do. You need to be incredible at choosing the context in which you do it.” Well said.
I always appreciate new metaphors for making sense of the world. I had never thought of a physics/density-based one for competition and differentiation. So thanks for sharing that. Are you familiar with the blue ocean/red ocean metaphor in business? Your metaphor reminded me of it.
It’s also probably worth clarifying one’s criteria of success. If fame and fortune are high on the list, differentiation, uniqueness, and excellence are important. But if the expectation is personal satisfaction and joy from mere participation in an endeavor, that’s fine too. You discuss the importance of context in the above essay, and that strikes me as another way of adjusting the context/surroundings accordingly.
That said, I often feel paralyzed by the abundance of “competition” in online media. There are so many creative, talented, and ambitious people on the planet. It’s easy to succumb to imposter syndrome and wonder if it’s worth continuing to blog, write, record, or whatever. I wonder about these things regularly.