How to be guy #3

Seth Godin introduces the concept of the third guy with the video above.

To quote from his blog:

My favorite part happens just before the first minute mark. That’s when guy #3 joins the group. Before him, it was just a crazy dancing guy and then maybe one other crazy guy. But it’s guy #3 who made it a movement.

Initiators are rare indeed, but it’s scary to be the leader. Guy #3 is rare too, but it’s a lot less scary and just as important. Guy #49 is irrelevant. No bravery points for being part of the mob.

We need more guy #3s.

I’m in total agreement about the folks beyond guy #3; they were just along for the ride. So the question is how to be guy #3.

I’m not sure I have a tried and true answer to that question, but I do have some tell tail behaviors.

The third guy is…

• the guy that after the two wiz kids in the class get their answers out, raises his hand and asks the dumb question.
• the guy that after the two tennis pros take up a game at the local court, grabs his Walmart racket and some random stranger and starts up game on the next court over.
• the guy that after the first two order fancy scotch and no on else can decide, jumps in and orders a light beer.

If I had to say there is one common characteristic, it’s that the third guy is not afraid to take part but also not afraid to not be the best/perfect/leader and just have fun with it.

Those types serve the purpose of bridging the gap between the early adopters or pack leaders and the rest of the crowd. It’s their initiative that really breaks the ice on an event or a new tool or technique. They aren’t afraid to be imperfect and laugh at themselves.

How can we take that and walk away with something useful? We can be that third guy (or gal) every day with the huge amount of web 2.0 tools coming out.

One guy that gets this is Robert Scoble. He took up blogging without worrying about getting it right; he just blogged what came out. When video tools go started, he didn’t wait for the book or the guide lines from the inventors or early adopters, he dove in and started recording low quality, fun and spontaneous videos.

His behaviors enabled us less than cutting edge folks to look at those tools with a wink and a nod instead of fear and frustration. We no longer cared so much if our blog posts didn’t follow the rules of grammar, talk about starlets, or ran way to short for a ‘real article’. It made me realize that recording 12 second snippets can not only be fun but rewarding, and that wearing a strange hat can be just as valuable as HD video.

So keep in mind, you aren’t always going to be the cutting edge person, the one who uses a tool first, but you can be the one that jumps in and makes it less scary, lowering the barrier for the rest of us.

Notes:
Read Seth Godin’s full post, #3.
Robert Scoble’s latest project