#Freestyle Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart released to his peers and audience, a music so rich, artful and difficult to grasp, instead of applause and jubilation, they lamented that they couldn't understand it.
So in 2018 we published a teenage magazine. The front had fifteen photos in collage, the back had a photo of three teenagers. The mid-section had elongated pages with various pictures and writings.
Only the second last page of the magazine had no pictures. When I asked my forthright teenage daughter why she wasn't interested in the magazine. She told me the magazine is too rich, she wouldn't even take it to school with her.
Yet I was ready to give her a number of free copies to take with her to school. I felt a tight bitter nought in my stomach. I am sure Mozart felt the same.
I thought they would like colour and exotic ideas with technical writing. But it seemed I had overdone it. I had produced an overdose to my targeted audience.
I had done my research well and collected some insights and themes, how come my product was being rejected?
The magazine wasn't expensive either but everyone was just exclaiming how colourful and trendy it was, but no one was buying.
So I learnt that for one to make a successful product. One needs balance while creating.
Most innovative products tend to look like the environment it is made in.....that environment might be as enriching as it can, or be limiting to the product.
Either the product developers have an array of resources at their disposal they kept on adding features or they have so little the product is under developed.
What I learnt while getting feedback from the audience was that, human beings prefer familiarity. Something to remind them of who they are or what they were.
They want something straight forward which they can easily identify with or which they have identified with before.
For me to do all these I needed to expose my mind to a different environment of the same industry.... Let's say a trade magazine publishing business premises. It would have helped me to create balance while publishing the Teenovation magazine. The audience didn't want to be overwhelmed by so many ideas at the same time. They needed them in series, phases, doses and balanced.
And it dawned on me how we need balance in work, relationship, business, thinking, lives and even leadership or else we cause suicide to our own ventures and our own selves.
