Find one person who gives a shit. The rest is easy.

Everything seems difficult when you try to do everything at once. You’re not alone in thinking the entire world is stacked against you from the get-go. It’s natural to think about how hard it is going to be to get anyone to care about what you do.

You write a blog. Have you worked out how many people it’s going to take to justify your advertising so you can make money?

You play music. Have you thought about how many punters you need to drag to your gigs to just break even on the cost of hauling shit, buying gear and rehearsing?

You build software. Have you thought about how many people need to download your app and use it more than once to make your entire career choice valid?

You’ve probably thought all this shit through, and you’ve found it incredibly depressing, daunting and damn near impossible. You might have even thrown your hands up and straight out quit.

Photo credit: Joshua Earle

I wouldn’t blame you. I wouldn’t blame anybody for giving up when you’re banking against the immense difficulty of making the right people give a shit about what they do.

But here’s what I know to be true. You don’t have to worry about getting a whole lot of people into what you’re doing. That’s not something you have to care about or concern yourself with.

Here’s my rule. It applies whether you’re building a startup or writing a book or recording a mixtape. It’s the same principle for anyone making something.

All you have to worry about is getting a single person to give a shit.