The Futurist Behind 1,000 True Fans
Originally Published February 7, 2022
In our debut, we are featuring Kevin Kelly, one of the most famous futurists and the founding executive editor of Wired magazine. Way back in 2008, the premise of 1,000 True Fans was published through his personal website. He argues that as a creator, you donโt need millions of followers to make a living. With that, we would like to underscore that applying this method will only make you a living and not a fortune. True fans are not your typical customer who will just buy a product or two. True fans will squander any amount on anything that you produce. Whatever your interests as a creator are, your 1,000 true fans are one click away from you but the thing is you have to keep a direct relationship with them. If you can get every fan to spend 1,000 pesos buying your product or service in a year, then you can become a millionaire in just a span of 12 months.
A little background of Kevin Kelly on how he became one of the most interesting personalities of today: He is a college dropout who decided to travel across East Asia and blaze the trail of his passion for photography. He focused heavily on capturing the culture and traditions that were starting to fade. He recalled that during his time, dropping out of school wasnโt as cool as it is today. However, โsuccessโ wasnโt really in his vocabulary; instead, he wanted to find himself first. For him, finding oneself can be done by reflecting on how much impact and contribution you can give to the world. This led to the impetus that it is in failure that we truly learn. He also thinks that the meta-skill now is learning how to learn.
Kevin as a futurist foresees that in 30 years we will start to rethink the way we spend our time. We might visualize the world like the ones that we see in sci-fi movies but cities will be most likely the same. At this point, we have already invented all the things that we need so instead of making things, we will make things happen. We won't be changing much of the atoms around us. The internet, let alone blockchain will be an astounding sight to see. If you're doubtful of Kevin's forethought, he actually started studying VR in 1989. With Metaverse unfolding right before our eyes, he also warns about how careful we should be in accepting the fact that more and more of our data will be shared and monitored. He quoted, โAnything that can be tracked will be tracked.โ
Before we end, one fact about Kevin Kelly is that he keeps a clock that counts down x amount of days until he dies. He gathered all the technical tools that can calculate the remaining days of his life. Although its numbers may not be accurate, the reminder of how much time you only have to make a difference, wonโt make you waste a second. You can view Kevinโs what we can consider as storytelling photography on his website: www.asiagrace.com
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