Difference works sometimes but most times it doesn’t
If I were to address a room full of people and asked them to put up their hand if they believe in the saying “Think Different”, I bet everyone will put up their hand. The irony is that if there was one person that put up their hand after, to disagree with this, then they would actually be thinking differently, in my view and even more so would “Be Different”.
I would like to be that person but it is not so easy to do. I do not believe that thinking differently is so important but more to “be different “.
I think that to achieve success as a brand it is necessary to be different which is what we all are by the default. So, all we have to do is find our difference or differences and amplify them until we find the one that is valuable to our potential customers.
Also by allowing and encouraging difference in others allows us to be different ourselves.
The pressure applied to us to conform is huge in a society. It seems that difference is anathema to organisations as it tries to organise and streamline processes and get individuals to fit in to them. Indifference is the usual response to anyone that is being different and so the dilemma of difference versus indifference goes on.
Being different does not mean that it will be successful necessarily as most times in nature difference means failure, like a rainbow Zebra, for example. But occasionally difference can be successful and this is what I think difference is for, and what we can nurture, i.e. our very own differences.
Being different is not easy and although it is natural, in my view, it is also frowned upon and difficult to take a stand on our difference. I think that if we can learn to take this stand of being and showing our natural differences together, we can achieve anything that we set our minds to.
Vive la différence!
From Wikipedia on “Think Different:
Steve Jobs in interview for PBS’ ‘One Last Thing’ documentary, 1994:
| “ | When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it. I think that’s very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again. |
rethink PERFECT 