September 30, 2009
They Don’t Want You to be Remarkable So I have had a fairly jam packed social life recently (It is what it is) and as a result have not had time to be witty for the internet. Fear not though as tonight I have two posts that are both better than The Bible (Fact). I just finished this book Purple Cow by Seth Godin and I wanted to share a few thoughts and a quote from the book. Godin is a marketer whose thesis is that in the age of 500 channels TV’s and satellite radio, traditional mass marketing no longer works. The key according to him is to take the millions you would spend on a Super Bowl commercial and invest that money in making your product or service remarkable. Remarkable according to him is something that sets you so far apart from the crowd that people have to take notice. Some companies that are or have been remarkable in the recent past, according to him, are Apple, Starbucks, and Krispy Kreme. Since I don’t want to bore you with the details of a business book I would like to take his concept and apply it to people. My belief is that if you want to become something big in this World you are going to have to be remarkable and set yourself apart from the crowd in major ways. The problem is that being remarkable is not easy and people fear things that they do not know or things that are different. This is why some of my male friends still smirk when they see me wearing cardigans. Seriously if your a straight guy with straight friends and you go outside of the jeans, t-shirt, polo trifecta you can expect some serious hate. However, that is for another post, below is an extended quote on being remarkable from Purple Cow that I think everyone should read. “If you’re remarkable, its likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise - ever. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out. Where did you learn how to fail? If you’re like most Americans, you learned in the first grade. That’s when you started figuring out that the safe thing to do was to fit in. The safe thing to do was to color inside the lines, don’t ask too many questions in class, and whatever you do, be sure your homework assignment fits on the supplied piece of card stock. We run our schools like factories. We line kids up in straight rows, put them in batches (called grades) and work very hard to make sure there are no defective parts. Nobody standing out, falling behind, running ahead, making a ruckus. Playing it safe. Following the rules. Those seem like the best ways to avoid failure. And in school, they may very well be. Alas, these rules set a pattern for most people (like your boss?) and that pattern is awfully dangerous. These are the rules that ultimately lead to failure.” So the moral of the story is don’t be another corporate drone, if you want something in this World, go out and get it. Don’t be stopped by the fear of what your parents think, what your friends will say, or what your decision means for your current spending money. And yes, the above quote applies very directly to all the Kanye haters.

They Don’t Want You to be Remarkable

So I have had a fairly jam packed social life recently (It is what it is) and as a result have not had time to be witty for the internet. Fear not though as tonight I have two posts that are both better than The Bible (Fact).

I just finished this book Purple Cow by Seth Godin and I wanted to share a few thoughts and a quote from the book. Godin is a marketer whose thesis is that in the age of 500 channels TV’s and satellite radio, traditional mass marketing no longer works. The key according to him is to take the millions you would spend on a Super Bowl commercial and invest that money in making your product or service remarkable. Remarkable according to him is something that sets you so far apart from the crowd that people have to take notice. Some companies that are or have been remarkable in the recent past, according to him, are Apple, Starbucks, and Krispy Kreme.

Since I don’t want to bore you with the details of a business book I would like to take his concept and apply it to people. My belief is that if you want to become something big in this World you are going to have to be remarkable and set yourself apart from the crowd in major ways. The problem is that being remarkable is not easy and people fear things that they do not know or things that are different. This is why some of my male friends still smirk when they see me wearing cardigans. Seriously if your a straight guy with straight friends and you go outside of the jeans, t-shirt, polo trifecta you can expect some serious hate. However, that is for another post, below is an extended quote on being remarkable from Purple Cow that I think everyone should read.

“If you’re remarkable, its likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise - ever. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.

Where did you learn how to fail? If you’re like most Americans, you learned in the first grade. That’s when you started figuring out that the safe thing to do was to fit in. The safe thing to do was to color inside the lines, don’t ask too many questions in class, and whatever you do, be sure your homework assignment fits on the supplied piece of card stock.

We run our schools like factories. We line kids up in straight rows, put them in batches (called grades) and work very hard to make sure there are no defective parts. Nobody standing out, falling behind, running ahead, making a ruckus.

Playing it safe. Following the rules. Those seem like the best ways to avoid failure. And in school, they may very well be. Alas, these rules set a pattern for most people (like your boss?) and that pattern is awfully dangerous. These are the rules that ultimately lead to failure.”

So the moral of the story is don’t be another corporate drone, if you want something in this World, go out and get it. Don’t be stopped by the fear of what your parents think, what your friends will say, or what your decision means for your current spending money. And yes, the above quote applies very directly to all the Kanye haters.

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