Don't Think Different
There is a cost to thinking differently and doing things differently. Not everyone is prepared to foot that bill
Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 and rolled out a brand campaign - “Think Different”. It was successful. So much so that in the following decade it became the mantra for success.
Follow your intuition, they said; but what if your intuition told you to do what everyone else was doing?
We live in a world where everyone is asked to stand out and be different. Doing the thing that works is seen as boring.
A startup wants a wicked marketing strategy. Engaging in good old sales is boring. Let me tell you after having engaged with hundreds of SaaS startups - it’s good old sales that finally drive all the income. ALL.
Everyone does the boring thing because it works.
It works so well, that it is boring.
Investing in a fixed deposit works. No risk. Sure reward. But it is boring.
People want exciting. Not boring.
So they find some high growth small cap funds / stock and invest. Then Trump plays “tariff-tariff” and they watch their portfolios get wiped out.
Many years ago, when I started working, I got promoted three times in the very first year. I decided that a job was too boring. I started my own business. I quit the very month Lehman Brothers collapsed. The next 4 years were pure agony. Maybe I should have done the boring.
Sometimes not being different works.
Everyone wants to be Steve Jobs but how many of them want to be thrown out of the company they founded? That’s what it takes to be different.
Different is not easy. And maybe you don’t need to make your life unnecessarily hard.