When starting out in a new area, you’re bound to get advice from all over the place. Family, friends, random people, supposed experts, how-to books and Web sites will all attempt to tell you “how to do it”. Whatever it is that you set out to do in this life, there is one phenomenon that remains the same. You are bound to achieve the most success by simply being yourself.
Don’t just settle for the “10 things to do” and “5 rules to always break” and “1 most whatever” as the de-facto standard to accomplishing greatness. Just remember, those who really have been accomplishing great things have blazed their own trails, dared to take a leap and try something new, something they felt they had inside and wanted to bring out to the world.
In a USNews online article, Curt Rosengren explains it as this:
When your work is out of alignment with who you are, it’s like having your wheels out of alignment and having to constantly put effort into adjusting the steering just so you can keep moving straight ahead.
On the other hand, when you are doing work that is aligned with who you are, you get energy from it. Not only do you not have to put energy into being who you’re not, the very act of doing that work energizes you. The resulting energy differential is huge.
It all boils down to this: you can never be anybody else half as well as you can be you. Keep that in mind as you plan the rest of your career, and you will discover a path that makes the most of your potential.
Whether your goal is business, educational, or personal, remember to just be yourself. “Copycat marketing” (just doing what others are doing) may work for a time, but it doesn’t set you apart from what else is out there. You are just one among a mass. Be yourself and you immediately have something unique to present.
There is a danger that when areas where there is repeated emergence without any significant unique additions being introduced, that the overall results, services, or products that are the outcome of the imputs will, without a doubt, diminish in its ability to satisfy. For example, think of the web hosting industry. It’s a market that is extremely saturated and which has even more extremely tight margins for profit. Rarely are new, unique introductions made into the system. Without this, companies rely on simply upping the amount of the services given to its customers. In the end, it’s a fickle business because really, because it relies on the same tired approach to its product and services offering. I mean, does your every-day web hosting customer really need 1 billion terabytes of storage space for their family Web site? Would they even be able to get that if they were to ever try and use it all? Is a hosting company that offers 60 Terabytes THAT much better than one that offers 59.9? At some point the tired outputs just don’t mean anything and we’re left wanting something more, something that’s actually satisfying.
It never hurts to pave the way by being unique, being yourself. There’s a popular Web viral video that has been seen over 6 million times by people online. “Everyday” by Noah Kalina, is genius. It is “marketing” at its best. The input is simple and unique. Yet, in the end, we’re left with admiration of ones dedication to a project. It’s a project that spurs conversation between people. You can see the Web site with the most up-to-date information here: http://everyday.noahkalina.com/
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