But Will it Make Money?

From one or even several perspectives, this is the first and only question that matters.

Will somebody pay you for what you made?
Or, will somebody pay you for what you do?

This is what the market asks. Investors, bosses, even friends and family. We’ve normalized getting paid as a measure of what it’s — and you’re — worth. If you’re “in business,” then this is the question at the top of your mind.

And fair enough. Our system is built upon the exchange of money.

It’s an important question, but is it the most important? 

Here are some other important questions that need to be asked:

Will it make a difference?
Will it build trust?
Will it help someone?
Will it teach me something?
Will it get me in the room I want to be in?
Will it make me proud five months or years from now?
Will it attract the kind of people I want to work with?
Will it challenge the status quo?
Will it create a new system?
Will it make me better?
Will it make someone else better?
Will it make the system better?
Will it get me out of my comfort zone?
Will it make others want to talk about it?
Will it build community?

These questions get at the heart of the matter — what’s your signal? The signal is your work. Your impact. The dent you make in the world.

Profit isn’t the signal itself, but it rides on top of it. It modulates it. Amplifies it. Distorts it. Sometimes overtakes it.

But the signal is still yours to send. It’s the heart of the matter.

So yeah, we should ask, “Will it make money?”

Just don’t stop there because snake oil makes money if you know how to sell it.

But it poisons the well.