As entrepreneurs, we all want to stand out in a crowd of competition. None of us want to be overlooked, dismissed, or forgotten.
“Nobody can tell you
There’s only one song worth singing
They may try and sell you
Cause it hangs them up
To see someone like you
But you gotta make your own kind of music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind of music
Even if nobody else sings along
You’re gonna be nowhere
The loneliest kind of lonely
It may be rough going
Just to do your thing is the hardest thing to do
But you gotta make your own kind of music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind of music
Even if nobody else sings along”
Excerpt from “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil
As the train chugged toward Takaoka, Japan, I was in a trance. The scene through the window looked like the many images I had seen on Japanese scrolls, prints, and porcelains…mist hanging on layered, verdant mountains with shrines, temples, and small homes dotting the steep hillsides.
Dad had his black and red, buying trip journal on his lap. He thumbed through the pages, studying the lists and pictures of the treasures he hoped to find on our adventure. He stopped at the section of bronzes. Page after page of customer names alongside the designs they desired.
He closed the journal, looked up, and said, “We should be pulling into the station in about 30 minutes. You are in for an experience. Not every 16-year-old gets to see the epicenter of the lost-wax technique.”
He grinned. I smiled right back. Dad knew I did not care one bit about how the bronzes were made. We also both knew that that was going to change pretty quickly. I was secretly very curious.
You Are One of a Kind
After all, I had typed hundreds of “lost-wax technique” stories onto tags for each of the bronzes we sold in his shop over the course of several summers. Each tag had to be masking taped to the roller of his IBM Selectric typewriter and done one at a time. One mistake, and I had to start over with a new tag.
One afternoon in frustration, I said aloud, mimicking the story copy I was typing, “These damn tags are one-of-a-kinds.”
Dad was walking by with an ikebana arrangement, overheard me, and chuckled. He sat the arrangement down and came over to me.
“Let me explain to you the process of making these pieces. I think you’ll find it interesting.
The artisan starts with a clay model. He or she covers it with wax on which surface features of the image are modeled. Clay is added to make an outer shell. The inner and outer shells are pinned together, and the entire mould is fired. The wax melts, runs out. Molten bronze is poured into the space created. When the bronze cools and hardens, the inner and outer shells are removed.
This method produces items bearing exquisite detail and beauty. Each is a one-of-a-kind. Like you.”
He smiled at me, carefully lifted the arrangement, and walked to the front of the store to display the sparkling bronze container with its towering, splay of flowers and line material.
Stand Out in a Crowd
While I did not enjoy typing those tags, I will say the idea of being a one-of-a-kind certainly appealed to me. And ever since that summer afternoon in my teens, being a one-of-a-kind has been in the back of my mind…the quest to be original…indelible.
Indelible: “not able to be forgotten or removed.”
In seas of sameness, “red oceans of competition,” the artistry of originality is one of the primary keys to success for each entrepreneur and creator.
I believe we are all imprinted, to some degree or another, with a desire to stand apart from the crowd, stand out in a crowd, letting the uniqueness of us, our vision…our creativity…cut through the din of the chattering, copycat masses. Many of us, though, are tempted to follow the market-leading pack, being careful to place our feet precisely in others’ footprints, so that we can garner similar success.
Of course, the moment we do so, we are on the slippery slope to becoming a commodity in a crowded marketplace, competing on price.
So, how can we embark upon the alchemical voyage of discovering, making, and sharing our own kind of music? How can we become the highly-sought-after mould that will never exist again? How can we stand out in a crowd to be seen and remembered?
The happy news is that we already have everything we need for the journey. We are a priori unique! We simply need to uncover our “lost wax” voices and visions…and then trust them.
You Are Everything You Need
A simple place to begin is to get out a journal and pen and begin writing down singular, delicious experiences we have had when we were made to feel extraordinarily special…profoundly connected. Write down these details for each of the experiences you bring to mind:
1) Where were you? Describe the environment.
2) What were you doing? Describe the action and the players.
3) Why did this experience touch/move you so much?
4) What is it that you value/appreciate/desire/love that resonated with the experience?
5) What clues does this experience offer you as to what may lead you to what you would like to create?
I am willing to bet as you worked on these answers, you experienced a “blurt” of some kind. A flash of a memory. A sentence fragment from your soul. An image of something that sends electric shocks through your body.
Quickly, write down all those blurts. If you can sketch out or find pictures of any images you saw in your mind’s eye, put them in your journal. Do not leave this work for later…it will evaporate, and you will not remember. Work it while the energy is popping and fresh.
As entrepreneurs and creators, if we have the courage to deliver remarkable experiences, we will enjoy success that is essentially buffered from the vagaries of market conditions, economic roller coaster rides, and the advancing technological intelligence that threatens anyone whose work may be automated (which turns out to be quite a long list).
If we are willing to dig deeply for what brings us alive, we will be rewarded with the fodder and raw material for our creative expression…hints and breadcrumbs for the path to our becoming a category of one. The way to stand out in a crowd.
A place of rare air, where we enjoy tapping the depths of us and making the whispers from our hearts real experiences in the hearts of others. Such an intense and unbreakable connection with our ideal clients gives life to them and us…fostering our enduring success and impact.
