What You May Not Know about Yourself

At Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, one of the world's most fascinating museums, there are dozens of incredible exhibits. How do the museum curators measure which is the most popular? According to Eugene J. Webb and some other scientists who wrote a book entitled Unobtrusive Measures, it's by how often they replace the floor tiles. In many parts of the museum, the floor tiles last for years. However, around the chick hatching exhibit, where visitors can watch baby chicks hatch from eggs, they have to replace the tiles every six weeks!

So far in your search for the market niches you belong to, you've listed obvious and not so obvious things. Now it's time to look at things you may not even realize about yourself. You'll find them by looking at the clues you've left--sometimes without meaning to--just as visitors to the Museum of Science and Industry leave behind unintentional clues about the popularity of the exhibits. Print out this page and answer the questions, then file the page in your Market Niche folder. (Spend only about five minutes on each task in order to get through with it in 20 minutes.)

Your 20 Minute Task

Your first job is to look at your personal collection of books and magazines--however large or small it is. If you're like most people, most of your books and magazines will be about two or three main topics, perhaps with a smattering of lesser topics. For example, most of your books may be about computer programming, business and foreign languages. Or they may be about home improvements and gardening. Or you may have books about restoring old cars and religion and running a Boy Scout troop. What are the main topics your book and magazine collection covers?

Now, discover the topics that you've been browsing on the Internet the past few days. Look for the History menu in your browser and find the entry that lets you look at the pages you've visited. (Different browsers have different menu choices for this so how you'll find it depends on what browser you're using. Try the Ctrl+H or Command+H key combination if you don't see a menu choice.) Try to figure out what the main topics were.

Jot down the key categories of topics you looked at on the Internet over the past few days.

Finally, walk around your home. Look for collections of things that other people might not have. For example, you may have half a dozen canoes in your garage. Or your house may be full of orchids. You may have 15 beds or 12 children. You may have 10 different sets of china or 500 videos on DVD or a year's supply of food.

List the things in your home that you have a lot of but that other people typically don't. Pay particular attention to things you would not like to lose.