Surrogation
Surrogation
Learn From The Mistakes Of Others And Avoid Failure
There’s a fella named Dan Pink.
He looks like this:
Pink is a well-regarded author whose books I’ve never read. But I heard him in an interview recently talking about a concept called…
Surrogation
According to dictionary.com, surrogation historically refers to:
“a woman [becoming] pregnant with the fertilized egg of another woman.”
Kim Kardashian apparently did that recently.
Fair play to her.
But that’s not what Dan Pink meant by surrogation.
He explains in this article:
I’ve become a huge believer in surrogation, the psychological concept that if you want to know what an experience is going to be like, find someone similarly situated and ask for their experience.
A very good way to avoid failure is to learn on someone else’s dime. Let them make the mistakes and then learn from those mistakes. I much prefer learning from other people’s mistakes than from my own.
So surrogation is a way to quickly learn if a particular path is right for you, without having to walk down that path very far yourself.
As an example, let’s say you want to become a professional freelance copywriting ninja.
Adopting the principle of surrogation, you would become pregnant with the fertilized egg of another professional freelance copywriting ninja.
No, wait, wrong definition :-/
Adopting the PSYCHOLOGICAL principle of surrogation, you would reach out to an established professional freelance copywriting ninja – that is, someone who is literally doing what you want to be doing, and earning the kind of money you want to be earning – and:
Ask about their experience
Ask for their recommendations
Ask about the pros and cons of their chosen path
Ask what they’d do differently if they were starting over
Not only can you get great advice this way and save yourself a ton of trial and error, but you also begin to build a relationship with someone you admire.
That could lead to referrals, an apprenticeship, perhaps an informal mentorship, and lots of other magical and splendid things.
And if you can’t reach out to someone personally?
Read their books and articles
Find interviews they’ve done
Listen to their podcast
Watch their videos
Let’s take another example, this one not related to online-business.
Say you want to have a baby but aren’t keen on doing the whole pregnancy thing. Conveniently enough, that’s a situation good ol Kim Kardashian found herself in recently…
So that was Kim Kardashian expressing interest in BIOLOGICAL surrogation, and Kourtney/Khloe/Kwhoever Kardashian recommending she use the concept of PSYCHOLOGICAL surrogation to figure out if it’s a good idea or not!
That’s, like, surrogation inside surrogation!
So anyway, this concept of surrogation is great and you should give it a try next time you’re thinking of doing something new.
As the saying goes:
The best way to walk through a minefield is in someone else’s footsteps. 1
I’ll leave you with a challenge:
Try reaching out to three people who are doing what you’d like to be doing, or who have achieved what you would like to achieve. Compliment them on their success, and ask: What one piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Limit yourself to one question like that, accompany it with a compliment, and you’re much more likely to get a response.
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