It’s Not For You.
For the decade and a half that I was a struggling entrepreneur, rubbing two sticks together for heat, I’d find myself in San Francisco a couple of times a year. And I’d stay at the Phoenix. Not because it was free (Chip charged me the slightly-discounted starving-entrepreneur rate) but because (at least at the beginning) Chip needed the business and I needed a cheap place to stay.
The thing is, I never liked it very much. It was too noisy. There were buses in the parking lot (!) and rock stars in the pool. And I never got a massage, hmmmm.
Anyway, it took me a little while to realize the lesson, but once I learned it, I had it forever. It’s not for you. The magic of Chip’s hotel mini-chain is that it wasn’t a chain. That each hotel was specific. Specific and indispensable. The one and only. The one worth seeking out.
Once the Hotel Rex opened, I got a better night’s sleep. Because that one was for me.
Having the confidence to be specific is a huge leap, and in a world of the smallest viable audience, an essential one.
This is the 4th post in our week-long series of Chip Conley and Seth Godin sharing lessons on how to harvest and cultivate wisdom. Here are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd posts from the series.
