Middle Path Thinking: Staying Balanced and Avoiding the Danger of Exaggeration

“The relentless pursuit of mass will make you boring. To offend no-one and satisfy everyone. Be prolific. Be specific. Stand for something.” — Seth Godin

As a marketer, this is a mantra that obviously makes sense. It works. Don’t be vanilla, don’t be dry. No-one wants to read / hear from people who sit on the fence — we love opinionated, sensationalist, hypey things which are interesting and stir up the emotions and make you feel all the feels, etc.

That’s cool. I can do that. Well actually, I do do that. In fact, so much so that I have had people often call me ‘niche’ — in the things I like, in the things I think, in the things I buy. I don’t tend to follow the crowd so much. Quite the contrarian in fact.

In business, focusing on a niche is good. Serve a very specific market and serve it well.

In life however, I would argue that perhaps it’s not quite so good.

How so?

In the sense that it could lead to a slippery slope.
In the sense, it could drive you to the fringes and extremes.
In the sense, you could become imbalanced.

Let me explain.