2017 — The year of the practitioner

Being a practitioner is hard.

The only thing that’s harder than being a practitioner is to become a practitioner.

Simply because you have to spend months and months figuring stuff out.

And there’s no guidebook to follow.

No class to take.

No blueprint.

No nothing.

There’s only trial & error.

And most of the time there’s no guarantee that what you’re trying to figure out, that what you’re trying to get off the ground will really work.

That’s why almost no one these days is a practitioner anymore.

It’s just too damn hard to learn all of these things.

All of these platforms.

All of these tools.

And all of these techniques.

And most importantly, there’s no guarantee for anything.

No job. No fancy cars. No nothing…

On the other hand it’s a lot easier to just learn about all of this strategic B.S.

You know, all of this stuff you learn at those dusty universities that no one really needs anymore.

I also learned all of this stuff.

I got two degrees… super prestigious… blah… blah… blah… and even more blah…

And I know why it’s so damn hard to break out of this cycle of more and more strategic B.S.

Because it pays a hell lot of money.

I made pretty good money with strategic jibber jabber without really having to do or create anything, without eve creating real value before I quit my job and became a practitioner.

And what did I get instead when I went from strategist to practitioner?

A few years of learning, not making a lot of money while everybody else was starting to earn more and more.

That’s why almost no one these days goes the way of the practitioner anymore.

Universities are overflowing with people who want to learn the art of creating value while actually creating nothing at all…

Everybody wants to become a strategist.

Because it paid good money.

The emphasis is on “paid”.

Because times change.

The supply of strategists (people like me who didn’t know a damn thing about a damn thing after graduation) is way too high for the low demand.

Universities churn out graduates with degrees that allow them to do everything without ever really knowing how to do anything.

Even the big consultancies have realized that no one buys their strategies, concepts or what not anymore.

Strategies, ideas and concepts are dead.

Implementation and execution is king.

More than ever before.

Simply because the market is so unpredictable that something that looks good on paper can easily turn into flushing down millions of dollars down the toilet.

Most of the top consultancies out there have already started some sort of company builder where they build startups for large corporations.

So instead of selling their concepts that all end up in them selling even more concepts because the implementation doesn’t work, they’re now offering an implementation service where they build startups for large corporations.

Will it work?

I don’t know.

But that’s not the point.

The point is that the folks who invented selling concepts for money without implementation are now abandoning the concept…

Developing strategies and concepts without implementation, without execution is pretty much dead.

Give it 5–10 more years max. Then it’s completely dead. Or I don’t know. Maybe it will never die. Who knows?

But what I do know is this…

Developing strategies and concepts can be learned. At school, at universities or what not. It’s pretty easy.

Execution and implementation on the other hand can only be learned by doing.

By going out there on the market, executing and actually seeing what works and what doesn’t.

And this shit is hard. Really hard. You can’t put an ROI on this stuff.

And that’s why almost no one is a real practitioner anymore.

We know everything.

In theory…

We can immediately access everything we need in just a few seconds.

But really doing stuff, being able to properly leverage all the tools out there is a whole other story.

We know all about Facebook ads.

Or Twitter.

Or Pinterest.

Or what not.

But how many ads have you ever created in your life?

Have you ever spent anything on Facebook ads?

Have you ever created a campaign yourself?

Or Twitter ads?

Or LinkedIn ads?

Or what not…

How many products have you sold through Twitter?

It astonishes me every single time.

People who call themselves digital transformation managers, experts, social media blah or what not have a Twitter account with less than 100 tweets, zero retweets and close to zero followers…

Real practitioners right there…

Look. I get it. Being a practitioner is hard.

And it takes time.

A lot of time.

And patience.

And it only works through trial and error.

It takes a hell lot of time to understand and work with Facebook ads. Or Twitter. Or Amazon. Or Ebay. Or Fiverr. Or Wordpress. Or what not.

But all of these tools are out there.

For everyone to learn, to use and to leverage.

And it doesn’t matter whether you live in the US, India, China, Africa or whatever.

Today you can run an entire business with just a few tools.

Just a few years ago you might have needed a team of 10 people to do all of that stuff.

Today there are tools for everything.

Tools that give every practitioner or everybody who’s willing to learn an edge.

But you’ve gotta be willing to learn those tools and put in the work.

The ROI is so big you won’t even be able to measure it.

Sure, you can go the route and hire people for everything.

But you’ve gotta have deep pockets.

And they’ll have to get deeper and deeper.

Simply because the demand for real practitioners, for people who make shit happen is getting bigger and bigger every single day.

While the supply of practitioners is getting smaller and smaller.

Hence, prices will go up and practitioners will win in 2017.

And even more so in the years to come.

And not only this.

A real practitioner won’t work for anyone.

Why?

Well, because he’s a practitioner and can work on his or her own projects.

A real practitioner doesn’t need to hire anyone.

A real practitioner gets shit done on his or her own.

She doesn’t need money to get things off the ground.

She can get everything to a level where she makes enough money without outside help and can then go on and hire other people.

The practitioner can launch one project after another.

Test it quickly, adapt it, tweak it and go on to the next project if it doesn’t work out.

While a strategist is still busy writing and planning things and trying to find funding for her ideas the practitioner already went out there on the market, validated four different ideas, found the one people are willing to pay money for, shipped it and generated first sales…

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