web3dom #23 - 1000 True Fans: Even a rotten pig head has an anosmic deity to appreciate it.

This week, we're doing something fresh - a Cantonese class discussing the proverb "Even a rotten pig head has an anosmic deity to appreciate it."(葾豬頭都有㒼鼻菩薩)

"葾" refers to a foul smell, particularly from rotten food. The diction is commonly seen in “葾肨爛臭”, a colloquial phrase to describe things that are smelly and rotten. Unlike in Mandarin where certain words might have direct characters, in Cantonese, many colloquial terms might not have a direct character that everyone recognizes. People often use a similar sounding character with a different meaning, called a "substitute character". For "葾", people often use "冤", though some suggest the proper character might be "蔫".

"㒼" is usually represented by the substitute character "萌". Some believe the correct characters should be "盲" or "齆". The term "㒼" means to be blocked or obstructed. In this context, "㒼鼻" refers to a stuffy nose. I am particularly qualified to discuss this because while most people occasionally suffer from a stuffy nose, I rarely breathe freely; I am congested most of the time.

Cantonese people traditionally use pig heads in worship. Given the hot weather in the south and the lack of refrigeration in ancient times, it wasn’t unusual for food to go bad and stink. However, it doesn’t matter because the deities are usually made of wood, stone, or clay and they don’t have nostrils. The proverb highlights that even something most people might find repulsive will have its admirers, and it’s commonly used in the context of relationships.

Having read this, you'd appreciate the rich humor in Cantonese. Many of its proverbs are quite witty and amusing. Alright, that's enough for the side talk. Let's move to the main topic.

If you're a dedicated creator, but no one appreciates your work, would you:

• A: Change your style, direction, or medium of creation to cater to the mainstream taste?

• B: Through accumulating and organizing your works, interacting with the audience, promoting, and selling, strive even harder to find kindred spirits?

If the song you've composed isn't catchy enough, then write a melody more suited for karaoke songs. If the videos you produce are too formal, make them light-hearted and funny. If you prefer to express through words but the newer generation labels any status update over a hundred words with #LongPostBeware, then use TikTok to produce content. From a business standpoint, option A seems like the correct answer at every glance.

I won't say A is necessarily wrong. However, if every composer is writing for karaoke, every YouTuber is taking a comedic approach, and everyone uses TikTok to express, then who will cater to the non-mainstream audience? If it's all about business, why would I care if no one is serving a niche market? But, isn't an unserved niche market, from a business standpoint, a business opportunity? Conversely, if everyone is rushing to serve the most generalized demand, wouldn't that market be overly saturated and fiercely competitive?

You might argue that your work is too niche. If you don't adopt a more mainstream style, there won't be enough people to support it. That could be true. But before reaching that conclusion, let's crunch some numbers to gauge the demand.

Assuming you ask fans to subscribe or support your work at a monthly fee of HKD 50 or TWD 200, aiming for 1,000 paid subscribers, your monthly income would be HKD 50,000 or TWD 200,000. Deducting assumed costs like 20% for credit card charges, platform fees, support staff, etc., you'd still have a decent monthly income of HKD 40,000 or TWD 160,000, especially considering you're doing something you love and believe in.

So, what does it mean to find 1,000 fans willing to support you financially? In terms of the population of Hong Kong, it's finding one person in every roughly 7,000; in Taiwan, one in every 23,000; and globally, one in every 7 million.

If the math is correct, when you say your work is too niche with not enough supporters, you're basically saying that among 7 million people, equivalent to the entire population of Hong Kong, not a single one would pay for your work. Is that really the case? Or haven't we tried hard enough to find them?

Even a stinky pig's head finds a deity with a blocked nose to appreciate it. How much more so for heartfelt creations? Unless your style, topic, and medium are just experimental and can be easily changed, if you're genuinely dedicated and believe in your work, instead of going with the flow, it's better to try harder to find your kindred spirits among the masses, step by step, aiming for those 1,000 fans.

First and foremost, I must emphasize that these insights are not my original work but are from a man known as KK, or Kevin Kelly. KK had penned an essay titled "1000 True Fans" in 2008, which inspired countless readers, many of whom later became incredibly successful creators or entrepreneurs.

The "1000 true fans" concept wasn't always applicable since, before the advent of the internet, it was challenging for an individual to sell products beyond a ten-kilometer radius, let alone search for like-minded individuals on a global scale. The rise and significance of "1000 true fans" are closely intertwined with the evolution of the internet.

In 1993, WIRED magazine was established, aiming to be "The Rolling Stone of Technology", always at the forefront of IT and internet culture. Serving as its inaugural editor and also the editor of The Whole Earth Catalog (yes, the magazine with "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." on the back cover), KK possessed profound insights into technological trends, especially their societal and economic impacts. He authored the renowned trilogy: "Out of Control", "What Technology Wants", and "The Inevitable".

By 2008, with over a decade of internet growth, even before the iPhone was released, KK recognized a new paradigm and wrote "1000 True Fans". This piece was later widely promoted by the famous author and investor, Tim Ferriss. By 2016, parts of the original article were outdated, so with the publication of Tim Ferriss's "Tools of Titans", which included the "1000 True Fans" essay, KK rewrote a more concise version.

Although the two pieces were written eight years apart, and the latter is almost eight years old by now, the core proposition and advocacy of "1000 True Fans" remain consistent: As creators or entrepreneurs, if your goal isn't to become immensely wealthy but to sustain a livelihood, you don't need to target millions or billions of customers. Instead, you should focus on finding 1000 loyal fans, continue to excel, and produce quality content and products. The internet allows creators to directly interact with their audience and conveniently charge them, making it the perfect medium for locating and maintaining a relationship with true fans.

However, I need to add a crucial footnote. Even if your goal extends beyond mere sustenance and leans more towards fame and fortune, "1000 True Fans" is still an excellent starting strategy. It's more logical to first find and satisfy 1000 loyal fans, then consider lateral or vertical expansion, rather than dismissing an opportunity because the market seems too small initially. Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, has offered numerous practical startup advice. One of his most important pieces of advice is, "it's better to have 100 people love you than a million people that sort of like you".

Even though my name, Kin Ko, shares the initials KK with Kevin Kelly, aside from Cantonese, there's probably nothing in which I can compare with Kevin Kelly. The best I can do is glean insights from him. I borrow the saying "Even a rotten pig head has an anosmic deity to appreciate it" to supplement the context of "1000 true fans" in this era, sharing my experiences in practice.

Some people think that despite knowing text is no longer in vogue, I still only write articles and publish books. The communities I frequent and the products I support are deeply tied to text, articles, and books. They wonder why I don't transform into a YouTuber or Podcaster or produce more contemporary products. To put it nicely, I'm persistent; to put it bluntly, I'm just stubborn.

Indeed, I am somewhat stubborn. While persistence might also be applicable, that's not the main point. The core reason is that trends are always changing. Even if one learns to adapt, plans might not catch up with the changes. Instead of chasing the trends, it's better to maintain a consistent style, choose good stubbornness, and save all the energy spent on adaptation for continuous creation and promotion, and reiterating viewpoints from various angles, looking for my 1000 true fans.

Listening to feedback is good, but who to listen to and when is crucial. If I tell you your classical music sounds cheesy, you should focus on finding like-minded listeners. Even if Mozart was reborn, I'd still find his pieces cheesy because I'm not your target audience. Even among potential audiences, if Alice says it's too left-leaning, Bob says it's too right-leaning, and Carol says it's too much, adhering to all opinions is logically impossible. If you change according to every opinion without establishing your unique style, that's not listening; that's being lost. Listening is an interactive process with fans, just like the acting technique mentioned in "King of Comedy" (a 1999 Hong Kong comedy film directed by Lee Lik-chi and Stephen Chow) that goes from "outside to inside and back to outside." First, the creator shows their unique style, and after finding the initial likeminded fans, the feedback received becomes the most valuable opinion. This feedback should be carefully considered for integration into personal style and presented again.

Finding true fans is not easier than the mass-market route. It's challenging to find 1000 people willing to pay for one's work; it requires strong willpower, unwavering determination, and firm belief. 

Since last year, I've been publishing each of my articles and related old articles as Writing NFTs for readers to collect. It wasn't until last week that the number of NFT holders reached 1000. At the time of writing, there are 1002 people. One of the articles I published last year, "The so-called 'I don't invest' means all in on fiat currency" had 943 readers. However, many readers are so generous that they don't even claim their deserved NFTs. I've had to temporarily hold on to these for them, and I might have to carry this responsibility to my grave.

However, NFT holders are one-time customers. Selling a thousand books might sustain me for a month, but I can't publish a book every month. Going by Kevin Kelly's definition, true fans are those who always buy your new creations. The allure of money is undeniable as it defines a stable income. The income from this fan base allows creators to remain focused and maintain quality, continuing to produce.

From this perspective, only the paid subscribers of my newsletters can be considered loyal fans. I only have a mere 135 "true fans" (sincere thanks to all 🙏🏼), making my progress just 13.5%. After 122 issues of the newsletter (which started in Chinese), I have accumulated 135 loyal fans, averaging 1.1 per week for each article. At this rate, even if no one unsubscribes, it would still take me over 15 years to gather 1000 true fans.

The slow progress is due to my insistence on keeping all educational articles open, making it harder to convince readers to pay. A few years ago, LikeCoin withdrew its registration in Hong Kong, causing me to lose over a hundred subscribers at once. But these are all excuses. The main reason is that I'm not trying hard enough to promote. I'm introverted and socially anxious. While I put effort into writing, I slack off when it comes to promotion, adopting a laissez-faire approach.

Even if I overcome my personality and improve my promotion, finding a thousand loyal fans is undoubtedly a tough task. And even if one day I truly attain 1000 true fans, if by then I'm mentally and physically unable to maintain quality or quantity, even if readers are willing to pay just based on past work, I'd feel bad continuing to charge them. Speaking of which, the most admired e-newsletter in the Taiwan and Hong Kong tech circles was "Tech Island Read," which has already been discontinued. I was a loyal fan, having read all its articles and listened to all its podcasts. While the insightful analyses were great, what I admire the most is that when Mr. Zhou Qin Hua felt he couldn't maintain high-quality output, he decisively chose to discontinue at its peak and refund proportionally without delay.

Creation is already hard work. Adding promotion, operation, and sales makes it even heavier. The 1000 true fans theory isn't a quick way to get rich and doesn't provide any shortcuts to make creation and promotion easier. Those seeking an easy life shouldn't rely on creation or entrepreneurship for a living. The theory of 1000 true fans simply tells us that if you genuinely love creating and believe in your work's value to the world, you don't need to worry about catering to a niche. You just need to create passionately and try your best to find your anosmic deity ("㒼鼻菩薩") no, your 1000 true fans.

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