We all want to be rich and famous. Well, many of us will simply take the rich part, since famous comes with quite a bit of insanity to deal with daily. Many people try to get rich and or famous by being the next big thing. They want to be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. Wanting to follow the path of people with great success stories is awesome. Trying to be exactly like them is the problem.
I’m not saying it is a bad idea to copy ideas and follow the direction of successful people. That is a good direction to head in to find whatever success you are seeking. But if you are not unique, you stand little chance of getting noticed. You are not Bill Gates and you are not Steve Jobs. That’s OK though. You have thoughts and creative ideas all your own. If you want to create an app that changes the world or just a tiny segment of it, that is within your reach. There is only one of you on this planet. Use that to your advantage.
I see successful people all around. They are not hard to find. From simple start up tech companies to guys doing podcasts as a full time job. But these successful people are the outliers in their niche. For every person that has quit their job to become a podcaster, there have to be hundreds who have failed to make it and thousands who have never even taken the steps to try it. If I try to do what the outliers do, I will likely fail. If I try to do something that is totally my own thing, I have a better chance of success. Once again, there is only one me on this Earth, which is lucky for the rest of the population!
You can be the next big thing by just doing something ten percent better than the others in your field. That is copying to some degree. The ten percent improvement must come from you however. That percentage improvement is not easy. If it were, then Blockbuster would have been put out of business by Redbox and Netflix many years ago instead of recently. Improving an existing product or service takes some creativity and true focus. Most people aren’t going to bother. That fact makes it possible for you to go the extra mile to be the next big thing in whatever venture you decide to take on. Just make sure you cut your own path. Even if you fail to reach a certain level, at least you did your own thing. That experience will help you in all your future projects.
