Are You An Imposter?
Even your best friends won’t tell you. Sigh! You’re tedious, tiresome and repetitive.
Well, you’re products and marketing tactics are anyway. Mark Twain got it right when he said that the best fruit is higher up the tree (or on the farthest branch). If it was easy everyone would have gorged themselves already – which is what they have been doing on the lower branches and on the fruit that falls on the ground.
If you stuck out your neck, what’s the worst thing that could possibly happen? Something bad? …..or something very very GOOD!
I love Seth Godin because he gave us the Purple Cow. Siimon Reynolds told us to Zig when everyone else Zags.
I love Ed Polish and Darren Wotz because I have ‘That’s Queen Bitch To You‘ on my desk which has daily reminders not to take life too seriously. Today is a 1950’s picture of women (likely housewives by the look of the white picket fence over which they have been depicted) and the caption says “We aren’t gossiping, we’re networking!”
Paul Arden suggests that whatever we think, we should think the opposite.
And my all-time personal favourite – wish I had the balls to write a book entitled “How to Succeed in Business Without a Penis” as Karen Salmansohn did.
I love Vivienne Westwood because she doesn’t give a shit if people don’t like her designs; there are plenty of people who think she’s a genius. Bob Dylan wouldn’t have won American Idol; Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t bow to pressure to change his name, or his accent; Ita Buttrose didn’t lose her lisp (and went on to become Australia’s most successful women’s magazine Editor AND Australian of The Year).
Lady Gaga is just that – Gaga! But she keeps herself in the headlines and on the charts with boundary pushing clothing/costumes/get-ups – but she actually CAN sing and she does write interesting songs. She doesn’t solely RELY on her bizarre tastes in clothes; that’s a cool sideline.
Even J.K Rowling was turned down by 12 publishers before someone saw her Harry Potter series for what it is – SHEER FANTASTICAL BRILLIANCE!
Famous British banker, Jimmy Goldsmith once said (and I may be paraphrasing) “Once you can see the bandwagon coming it’s too late to jump on”
Too right. Those who invested in Google, Facebook, Mashable, Instagram, Snapchat – man, didn’t they jump on the bandwagon before anyone else saw it coming.
So! What’s the purple cow of your business? Can you zig when everyone else in your industry is zagging? Can you make a really ballsy statement about your business? Will you ignore ‘No’ until someone tells you “YES!”?
Image courtesy of Basolian on Deviantart
If not then get off the stage! If you don’t think outside the box and stop doing what everyone else is doing, then you will be ignored on or off the stage. So you might as well make space for people and products and services that stand out from the crowd.
Be the best real you, not an imposter!
Have a great week being real, and different!
Can you relate to this article? Have you changed to become the real you? Is business intimidating thus creating the need for ‘imposters’?
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