Why can’t people who know everything come up with a niche? Three things Marie Kondo, Shu Yamaguchi and James Clear taught me

I often meet people like this.

He was highly qualified, with a long list of things he had done, and his certification and training records could fill an entire page. You ask him to introduce himself in one sentence, and he pauses for a few seconds and then gives you a three-minute explanation. There is nothing wrong with the description itself, and every sentence is true, but after listening to it, you still can’t figure out who he is.

This is not a question of ability. On the contrary, it’s usually because he knows too many things.

In this situation, the positioning is not clear enough. If we use the analogy of planting trees, the underground root system is very developed and the nutrients are sufficient, but it is a pity that a tree that is recognizable to people has not grown on the ground.

If you are also stuck at this place, I would like to first talk about three personal brand cases in Europe, America and Japan. Their situation is actually very similar to yours, the only difference is that they made a decision. In the second half of the article, I will introduce a workshop that started on September 26th. It was one of the few classes I have seen that was willing to deal with this matter head-on. The instructor was my good friend Susie Li.

Case 1: Marie Kondo, converging an entire field into one criterion

Let me start with a name that many people are familiar with.

Marie Kondo is well-known, and her strength is organization and storage. This field existed long before her, and there is no shortage of skills on the market: how to fold clothes, how to partition cabinets, and how to rotate seasonal items. If she had followed the same path, she would have been a very competent storage consultant at most, and then nothing more.

But the interesting thing is that she does things differently than others. Instead of stacking more tricks, she converged the entire field into one question:

Are you excited to hold something in your hand?

The original Japanese text is “ときめき”, and the Chinese translation is translated as beating heartbeat (opens in a new tab). The core of the entire KonMari methodology is this question. There is only one criterion for judging whether to keep this sweater, this stack of old letters, or this pot that has not been used for three years. It has nothing to do with how much it is worth or whether you will use it in the future.

This seemingly simple criterion turned her from a storage consultant into a famous name in history. In 2015, she was selected as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people; in 2019, Netflix opened a reality show for her; the five letters KonMari have even become a verb in the English-speaking world.

What I want to draw your attention to is the location of the convergence. What she restrained was not the amount of content. She talked about a lot of storage techniques in books and programs, but those were not lacking elsewhere; what she restrained was a set of logic and judgment standards. She only asked one question in the entire field, and that question was simple enough that anyone could start applying it immediately after listening to it.

This is the first thing: positioning convergence. What converges is often the judgment standard, not the output.

Case 2: Yamaguchi Zhou, he has not lost any of his qualifications​​

The second case, I think, is more valuable for senior workers.

Japan’s Shu Yamaguchi is now an independent researcher and writer. Looking at his experience, you will feel very jumpy: he graduated from the Philosophy Department of the Faculty of Letters of Keio University, and studied aesthetics and art history at the same school. Then he joined the advertising giant Dentsu, then the world-famous Boston consulting firm, and then served as a senior partner of the Korn Ferry Hay Group, which started with organization and talent development, and finally started his own business.

Philosophy, art history, advertising, strategic consulting and organizational development. If we put such a list of qualifications on the table, most people’s intuitive reaction may be that it is too complicated and difficult to focus.

But he did not cut off any projects. He defined his theme as the intersection of humanities and business science.

In this way, the five qualifications that were originally unrelated to each other instantly became evidence of the same thing. The book he wrote, “Why Are the World’s Elites Practicing Aesthetics? On the Art and Science of Management” (books.com.tw (opens in a new tab)), talks about exactly this imbalance between art and science in business management. This book won the semi-grand prize at the 2018 Japan Business Book Awards. Philosophy is not a subject that he was good at in the past, and art history is not a long way around. That is why he can express this set of views, but his consultant colleagues cannot.

There is a point where many people are contrary to this. Remember: Convergence does not equal deletion.

What you need to control in your positioning is your words to the outside world, not yourself.

Your qualifications don’t disappear as your niche narrows, they recede into the background and become the foundation that supports that statement. There is only one question that should really be asked: Which place do these things, taken together, point to where only I can stand?

This is the second thing: most of the things you can’t bear to delete don’t need to be deleted. What you need is a thread to string them together. This is what I have always wanted to say: Multiple interests are not distractions, but careers you have not yet assembled.

(opens in a new tab)

▲ Subscribe to “Vista AI Inspiration Supply Station” and let inspiration from AI and content creation come to you every day

If you like this kind of thinking about positioning, content and one-person career, please subscribe to “Vista AI Inspiration Supply Station (opens in a new tab)”. There I will share my practical experience of AI applications, observations on content creation, and fragmentary ideas that have not yet been written into a full article. After subscribing, these contents will appear directly in your news feed.

Case 3: James Clear, it will last for many years after it narrows down

The third case is about time.

James Clear (opens in a new tab) has been writing on his website since 2012, and the themes have been focused from the beginning: habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement. He regularly updates twice a week and has been writing for several years. Later, the book “Atomic Habits” sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and was translated into more than 60 languages.

What I want to point out is that his difficulty was not actually how accurate his selection was at the beginning, but that it did not change in the following years.

When there is not much response after writing for three months, the most tempting option is always to change the topic. Maybe writing about current affairs will get traffic, maybe touching on hot topics will help you be seen. It is here that most people disperse the positioning that they have finally converged on.

The compound interest of positioning will only appear if it is narrowed for a long enough time. If you stand in the same position long enough, that connection will be established in other people’s minds: when they think about it, they think about you. Once this link is established, it will work for you for many years.

Here’s the third thing: holding back is a decision, but holding back is a discipline.

The difficulty lies in the choice, not in the choice

When we put the three cases together, they actually point to the same conclusion: the role of positioning is to give others an entrance, not to make yourself smaller.

After all, human attention is limited, and no one is obliged to spend three minutes to understand your whole picture. You have to give the other person a door first, and then he has the opportunity to see all of you. I talked about this in Creating an Incomparable You: The Journey of Personal Brand Positioning, and I also saw a living example in this interview [/blog/four-pivots-positioning-grows) People who changed tracks four times are more worthy of learning than people who found their position once.

When it comes to the truth, it is actually not difficult to understand. But I know, everyone understands the truth, but the real barrier is not here.

I have seen too many people nod after listening, go back and spread out their asset list, and then sit in front of the list for three hours without being able to delete a single thing. Because each item is the path he has truly traveled, and behind each item there is a person, a price, and a period of time to survive.

I talked about this issue with Susie Li, and she put it very accurately. She said that the reason why this group of people couldn’t choose was not because they didn’t know how to choose, but because they couldn’t bear it.

I think this sentence is the key to the whole thing. There are actually a lot of content on the market that talks about positioning, and most of them stop at teaching you to make lists, fill in forms, or set up formulas. But it doesn’t mean that everything will be fine after filling out the list. The really difficult action, that is, the action that requires you to be ruthless among several very real selves, but few people can accompany you through it.

Regarding this point, after participating in the first workshop in July this year, I wrote a more complete experience: It’s not that you can’t choose a position, you just can’t bear it. That article talks about why convergence is a kind of emotional labor, and how to turn the discarded self into thickness.

”Positioning Convergence Workshop” on 9/26

So, when I saw that she gave this lecture and put the most difficult step directly in the center of the course, I thought it was worth recommending it to you.

Her approach is two-tiered. The outer layer is a six-step convergence method, from inventorying assets, looking at market positions, convergence and trade-offs, designing products, collecting feedback, and launching monetization. It is a path from chaos to clear positioning. The inner layer is a five-layer content structure, from seeing, desire, translation, method to catching. It deals with how to write each piece of content so that it hits the mark after the positioning is determined.

I especially want to mention the third step and the third layer.

The third step is to converge and make choices, which is the word “give up” mentioned above. She regards it as the core of the whole method. The third level is translation, translating the other party’s vague feelings into clear language. For many workers who can feel and accompany, the greatest value is here, and the biggest sticking point is also here: they can feel it, but they can’t express it.

Li Sixuan has a master’s degree in psychology and is also a senior media person. She started out in Taiwan’s media circle and started running her personal brand from scratch after moving overseas. She does not rely on advertising budgets or algorithmic dividends. She not only understands the logic of content production, but also understands why people want to respond and share. This pair of eyes is what is most needed for convergence positioning.

The second phase of “Positioning Convergence Workshop” September 26, 2026 (Saturday) Taiwan time from 15:00 to 18:00, 3 hours in total Held online, limit 20 people Fee NT$4,500

Courses and registration are here: Positioning Convergence Workshop (opens in a new tab)

In three hours, you will take away one sentence of positioning, a main product direction, and a monetization path that you can start testing.

It should be reminded that the target audience of this class is quite clear: numerologists, fortune tellers, various coaches, or teachers who have moved from the education world to the field of mind and body, as well as, in a broad sense, those who have a lot of ideas, learned a lot, and have a long list of people who can’t tell who they are. If you are outside this range, it is also a good idea to look at the following three questions first.

Even if you don’t go to class, you can do three things first today

Whether you sign up or not, these three self-checks can be done now and are very effective. Before you start, you can also run it through the Positioning Convergence Device (opens in a new tab) I made and spread out the mess in your mind.

The first question: What would someone say when someone introduces you?

Remember, ask what the other person would actually say, not what you want them to say. Ask three people who know you and write down their exact words. If the three answers are completely different, it means that your current positioning has not yet been formed; if the three answers are almost the same, it means that you have already developed a positioning, but you have not admitted it yet.

The second question: Which of your assets can someone afford to pay for?

Make a list of all the things you know, and then honestly mark two things next to each item: whether anyone actually paid you, and who they paid. There are some abilities that you like very much and are really strong, but there are no corresponding buyers in the market, then it is suitable to be used as nutrients rather than appearance. This level is actually about understanding your own business. I talked about a more complete framework in Understand these five things, and you will understand any business.

The third question is also the most difficult one: the item you are most reluctant to delete is because it is valuable, or because it is your past?

There is no need to rush to answer this question. But the first thought that comes to your mind is usually the answer.

##Finally

Let’s go back to Yamaguchi Zhou’s example.

He did not abandon philosophy, nor did he abandon art history. He just found a sentence that made all those seemingly unrelated experiences fall into place. After restraining himself, his qualifications did not decrease, but he finally had an entrance to the outside world.

The same goes for the bunch of skills in your hand. The problem has never been that there are too many of them, but that the thread that connects them has not yet been found.

Hope you find that line soon.