How do you stay relevant? I’ve asked myself this question at so many different situations in life – as a writer, musician, employee, or student. In an ever changing world, how do you remain fresh and valuable. Richie Norton gives an example of how to do just that in his book The Power of Starting Something Stupid. Richie writes that to stay relevant you have to “permanently live in beta.”
Stay Relevant: Live in Permanent Beta
Betamax video tapes, a passing trend from the 80s that is no longer relevant
Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, told Richie that the best way to remain relevant is to live in “permanent beta” or in other words, never stop starting, and always be in the creation period. For me, this explains why the recording studio, where I get to create new music, has and always will be one of the most satisfying activities in my life.
The problem is that as human beings we seek the comfort of routines and habits. For some reason you feel safe in a dead end job where you continue collecting a pay check. But that is where souls go to die, according to this principle. Living in beta means leaving what we know and are familiar with (that 9-5 that you hate or product line that you built your name on decades ago) and try to create something new. Consider the opposite of what Richie is arguing: if you want to be irrelevant, stop creating, stop starting new projects, keep doing what you’re doing.
How many of us already fit that description? How many of us wish we could be more involved in what we love and be seen as relevant? I bet you can tie that feeling directly to a lack of action; a lack of living in beta.
Hoffman told Richie more. He said that living in beta helps to “make uncertainty and volatility work to [your] advantage…it’s a mind-set brimming with optimism because it celebrates the fact that you have the power to improve yourself and, as important, improve the world around you.”
Living in beta allows you the opportunity to control your situation and avoid the sense that conditions control you. I find this amazingly liberating right now as our federal government is financially falling apart, technology is constantly changing the landscape of everything around us, and change is more the norm than the exception. By constantly creating, you dictate the direction of your life and refuse to allow the environment to dictate your failure or success. It’s one of the greatest tools for being happy and living your dreams. What’s more, this is a way you can serve those around you and leave a lasting impression on the world.
Want to stay relevant and happy? Go start on that great idea you’ve been sitting on and never stop creating. Find “beta” and live there permanently. Relevance and success has nothing to do with routine and stagnation, it is directly tied to constant creation. Success or happiness is not the arrival at some distant point in the future, like retirement or some fictional dollar number, it is permanently living in beta.
Richie explains this and so much more in his book. Make sure to catch the rest of the story by picking up the book here.
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