Standing out from the crowd

Let’s face it; we live in a world of “mass.”

Mass marketing, mass communication, massive options, massive competition… everywhere we turn there’s a massive host of alternatives. But somehow, every so often, a leader emerges.

It’s someone who somehow figured out a way to do whatever it was remarkably better than everybody else. Somehow they found a key strength that they knew they could leverage better than the rest. In business, this is called a “distinctive core competency.” It’s something that you’re inherently good at—a core strength. We all have them; and they’re usually all different.

True leaders that push themselves above the masses are those that have identified their strengths, had the discipline and foresight to focus on them, and figured out how to communicate them in a way that makes them stand above the rest. They became “remarkable.”

Being remarkable means being worthy of remark—it means people who encountered you or your service appreciated some aspect of it enough that they just couldn’t wait to tell somebody else about it.

People who are remarkable are able to focus their energies on continuing to improve their core strength, because their customers evangelize for them. Word of mouth momentum pushes them above the rest in a natural, organic, and unbelievably viral way.

Is it your service? Is it the superior way you connect with your clients or peers? Is it your unprecedented familiarity with something unique and uncommon? Is it the incredible power and professionalism with which you market yourself? Is it the superior visitor value of your website? Is it your advanced use of technology to reach new-age consumers and get maximum exposure to your services? Is it your uncanny ability to understand people at a very innate level and connect them with what they want most? Is it your uncommonly accurate ability to interpret your surroundings and detect pitfalls? Is it your naturally compelling communication skills? Is it the understandably unique ability to persevere? Is it your ability to lead, to guide, to direct, to empathize, to teach, or to connect?

It can be any number of things. The point is: find something. Find the one thing that you know you can do better than anybody else in your field. It’ll likely be something you find yourself naturally good at, or something that you particularly enjoy.

One of the hardest parts of becoming remarkable is in acknowledging that you can’t be all things to all people. If you try, you’ll end up being nothing to anybody—just another part of the mass. We all have “bandwidth limitation.” There’s only a certain amount you can do in a day. You can either spread that time and energy over a broad range of activities, doing none of them better than anybody else; or you can focus those energies on one thing, increasing your chances of doing that one thing vastly better than the rest. Don’t dilute your efforts.

As you focus on your “core competency,” you’ll find yourself standing out above the crowd. You’ll become remarkable, and you’ll find a natural momentum that propels you further than you ever dreamed.

-Rusty