Chasing Cool 2: Make Product for Yourself

Just read a great book called, Chasing Cool. Thought I’d share a few ideas from it and process them out loud …

The authors tell about the revolution at US Weekly, where a new editor (Bonnie Fuller) came in and realized that the magazine was the ultimate “Me-Too” (trying to be like People). The driving motivation was sales, not a passion for what they were doing. Bonnie Fuller made major changes … she decided to make the magazine for herself. She later explained, “I wanted to create a magazine that I really wanted to read. I was the customer. And Us subsequently became the magazine that I was dying to read.”

Okay, I really love this. For years, when people ask me about Forefront I’ve said, half-embarrassed, “I just try to start a church for me.” I hadn’t been to a church that would have reached me back before I became a Christian, and so I designed the church that would reach me. And now that I’m writing books, I have these awkward conversations where I explain that I’m trying to write a book that I would want to read…

Chasing Cool makes the case that this is the best approach. That rather than trying to “chase cool,” rather than trying to do what’s trendy or what you believe will produce great results, try to start something that you would love, and assume that there are other people out there like you.

What do you think? And how would your church be different if you designed it for yourself? And would that be a good or bad thing?