I’ve been reading one of Seth Godin’s books titled “Tribes“. What an awesome book! Something that I read I wanted to share with you guys here. It’s about breaking the status quo. Breaking the boundaries of normal.
Seth used the double quoted phrase “Everyone Knows”. You don’t always want to have your life, career, characteristics, or business model summed up with these two words. Example: ‘Everyone knows’ you will have a sale at the end of each month, or ‘Everyone knows’ you will be done with an assigned project in so many days- You are in school for a degree and doing a project and ‘everyone knows’ what to expect in your presentation- In a manager’s meeting it’s your turn to speak and you will give a good speech as… yep ‘everyone knows’. How boring for everyone to know what to expect. Change it up! Be bold, be different!
Have a random sale in the middle of the month unannounced until one Friday at noon you hit the intercom system with enthusiasm letting the customers know you will be having a sale for the next 24 hours. (Planned sales are normal, be different, cause ‘sale hysteria’ and the customers will be contacting all the people they know about it because they feel they are playing beat the clock to buy whatever they can within the next 24 hours.)
Finish an assigned project in half the time. If doing that project at school, don’t do the run of the mill ‘good’ project- do a Great project. Spend time actually thinking of what people would NOT expect.
In that manager’s meeting- do something totally crazy that keeps your staff watching and wondering what’s next. People hold on to so much more knowledge when it is engaging!
So break the status quo. Don’t do what people expect- do something that will really break boundaries. Break the norm- get rid of it- it’s boring!
