Revolutionary Or Traditionalist

One? Both? Neither?

This past weekend, I watched La La Land for the first time. I had no idea it was a musical but I hung in there and watched it from beginning to end.

That sentence may cause you to think that I don’t like musicals but that isn’t 100% accurate. West Side Story is one of my favorite movies but maybe that is because I’m Puerto Rican and the story reminds me of my family…..I digress.

Anyway, in the middle of La La Land, Sebastian Wilder played by Ryan Gosling is having a conversation with Keith, played by John Legend.

And right there…..in the middle of a musical…..one of the most impactful sentences I’ve ever heard uttered was dropped:

Keith says to Sebastian:

How are you going to be a revolutionary if you're such a traditionalist?

That comment has been ringing around in my head for the past 48 hours and each time it comes to the forefront of my brain I think…..isn’t this what it means to run your own business, social media platform, life according to you and not what others are doing?

Is that thinking and that sentence the same thing?

I cannot help but think that they are the same. I also know that it is not what I want to do. I don’t want to continue to go down a path that has not only been created but paved over, had buildings erected and knocked down and erected again.

I want to pave my own path. I want to be that revolutionary but what does that mean?

My simplest response to that answer is: to do it my way.

I want to talk about the things I want to talk about and in a way that I want to talk about them. I want to promote our clients my way and bring my personal and company brand to them versus seeing what another company/person is doing and copy them. What is the fun in that?

You may say….but Jason, if you follow what the other person is doing you can also get the likes and comments. The glory and the fame. But…..is that true?

If I were to copy a post exactly as somebody else did, would I get that same response? I mean, sequels for movies don’t get the same exposure and revenue and feedback-how can I possibly think that copying somebody else’s vibe will do that for me?

And this is where I am. Doing it my way, on my own terms and leaning really hard into it.

I love to laugh and tell jokes-often at my own expense. I enjoy sharing my vulnerabilities because from that comes strength. I rely on connecting with others on social media and not just double tapping and scrolling by.

This is me…..the Jason Revolutionary and not the Jason Traditionalist.

But wait one moment…..is there value in being a traditionalist? Is there a component of traditionalism that would work?

The answer is yes but not how you may think. Using a website, social media platform and podcast platforms is now traditional. Leveraging those areas to promote my revolutionary personal brand as well as Run Tri Bike is what I’m leaning in to.

Will it be successful? I have no idea but I also have no idea if being more traditional would be successful either.

I mean, look at the NBA. At one time, the game was played to scores of 90-84 and now teams are scoring well over 100 because the traditional center play was replaced by shooting (and making) more 3 pointers.

The reality is that nobody knows anything. For this reason, I want to lean into doing the revolutionary, on my terms, versus the traditional on their terms.

When it is all said and done, I want to look back and say: I tried doing this thing one time and it was a massive failure but I laughed and practically cried at how awful it was.

That is a better story than, this one time I took what Jane Smith did and did it myself and it was alright.

I am looking for the revolutionary mindset according to me. Not the revolutionary mindset according to other because that isn’t revolutionary. Instead that is traditionalist wrapped up in a different package.

So…..

Are you a revolutionary but stuck in a traditionalist mindset? Are you a traditionalist looking for that revolutionary breakthrough? Balancing both?

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Thank you for visiting and reading. I appreciate you.

Time is the greatest gift we can give to another person and you gave me yours by reading this post. Thank you.