The Paradox Of New

Shopping for car parts online I added something to my cart, then, second-guessing myself, I used the contact form to ask a question about the part.

A week later I’ve gotten no response to my question but no less than three abandoned cart emails prompting me to finish my purchase.

So while I’ve had a handful of touchpoints with the vendor, none of them were useful for either of us.

I didn’t need a reminder that I left something in my cart, I needed my question answered. Service would have been the quickest path to a sale. I was ready to make a purchase, I just needed a tiny slice of attention.

But the system in place wasn't designed to connect, bring joy, or be of service, it was designed to capture.

It made me think about the allure of new and the devil on our shoulder, whispering in our ear: "Who cares about serving your current customers, how do you capture new ones?" (or personally "Who cares about your current friends, how can you get new ones?")

New is exciting, but the path to a worthwhile new is rarely ignoring the foundation we’ve built and starting from scratch each round.

When I only chase the dragon of new and exciting, I lose, and the people that have put their trust in me lose.

Conversely, the more I water the grass that’s right in front of me in both my business and personal life, the more I simultaneously deepen existing relationships and discover new opportunities.

The paradox of new: the most effective path to new is to put extreme intention and effort into what we already have.

As friends, artists, and business owners, we get to choose what we create—a veritable string of generic abandoned cart emails designed for nobody in particular, or experiences that bring joy and connection to people who truly appreciate and benefit from our work.

Paying attention to the people who are eager to engage with what we're creating is much more useful than trying to capture everyone's attention.