There are many ways to get noticed. You can make noise, argue well, make things difficult, be attractive, speak up at every opportunity. You can exaggerate, make a scene, cause a scandal, hurt others to clear your way. You can act like spam, shout a lot, interrupt all the time. Your brand can be the one we never want to hear about again.
Or it can be the one we would miss if it ceased to exist.
Absence vs. being missed
The difference between people noticing your absence and actually missing you is significant. If they only notice you are no longer there, everything will probably keep running as usual: another business quickly takes your place, and life goes on unharmed. Being missed goes deeper: it shakes the foundations, changes the pace, and takes time to find balance again.
Building a business that has a real impact on people’s lives is about exactly this: delivering what others need, even before they know they need it. Addressing their pain points head-on, offering solutions with aspects that did not exist before, that were not handled your way, with your level of care.
How to be missed?
Reaching the point of being missed certainly takes some work. Consistent work toward a purpose, spotting the opportunity, and being patient enough to find the best ways to seize it. Thankfully so: if it were the easiest path, everyone would take it.
It is more than finding who needs you and hitting the problem dead-on, more than finding your place in the market, having a sound risk assessment and a solid strategic plan. It is about doing things with passion, finding your reason to exist, rallying people around the same goal, and investing energy every day in maturing ideas, in learning, in the constant movement every company goes through. It is joining the dance and having the agility to show up with strength, grace, wisdom, care, and attention.
And because we live in a world built on connection and trust, because building a business is more about working with ideas and emotions than with muscle, because our reputation is all we have to offer, and because purpose is the most important part of acting in the world, for ourselves and for others, this work is worth it.