📆 TL;DR in case you’re skimming: AI-focused office hours for paid subscribers are officially in session! We have an amazing group of creative business owners, and I would love for you to join us :) The next one is on May 20 at 12 p.m. ET. Learn more »
This morning over coffee, my husband Michael read me a page from Haruki Murakami’s 2007 memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, one that’s been on my to-read list for over a decade.
Maybe the excerpt below is the nudge I needed . . . and perhaps for you too.
In Chapter Two, “Tips on Becoming a Running Novelist,” Murakami describes closing the bar he owned to shift his lifestyle, allowing him to go to bed earlier and focus on writing in the morning when at his energetic best. This was often at the expense of forming relationships with people in his extended network, who resented that he rarely said yes to invitations. He writes:
“I’ve consistently considered this invisible, conceptual relationship [with my readers] to be the most important thing in my life.
In other words, you can’t please everybody.
Even when I ran my bar I followed the same policy. A lot of customers came to the bar. It one out of ten enjoyed the place and said he’d come again, that was enough. If one out of ten was a repeat customer, then the business would survive. To put it the other way, it didn’t matter if nine out of ten didn’t like my bar. This realization lifted a weight off my shoulders. Still, I had to make sure that the one person who did like the place really liked it. In order to make sure he did, I had to make my philosophy and stance clear-cut, and patiently maintain that stance no matter what.”
💬 What’s one philosophy you hold as a business owner that you maintain no matter what, even if it turns off nine out of ten customers? What is more important to you than being liked? Especially if it means being loved by one out of the proverbial ten?
For a related read, check out this week’s PivotList newsletter: “Would you feel dejected if performing to an audience of three?” Not if you had Michael’s mindset . . .
I’m honored to be the kick-off returning guest for long-time Free Timer Travis L. Scott’s new podcast direction, AI-Ready or Not. In it, we discuss reverse prompting, starting small, self-improving agents, avoiding slop output, and how key Free Time principles come to life through experimenting with custom agents:
Our twice-monthly agentic AI-focused office hours for paid subscribers are live! Office hours are on the first and third Wednesdays of every month at 12 p.m. ET. Join us for the next one on May 20. ❌ Note: they are not recorded, since everything changes so quickly! We do share detailed notes and resources in Substack chat afterward.
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