Archive for 'Distinguish yourself'
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 11 Jul 2008, 6:05 PM - 5 Comments
Think about any reasonably successful person and you will see that his or her career path will be plastered with a series of successes and failures. While the media and the outside world may only paint a picture of what his or her successes are, the person will know clearly how the career was a roller coaster ride – up, down, up, up, down and up and so on.
When you plot this typical graph, you will see spikes on both sides of baseline.
However, you can make a difference by consciously working on disproportionately shifting the baseline to your advantage. In simple terms, you can do it by disproportionately investing in yourself over a long-period of time. The components that can disproportionately shift the baseline to your advantage are different for different people. For me (I think) these components are:
* A strong personal brand
* Solid long-term relationships
* High Leverage Thinking
* Access to powerful mentors and teachers
* Continuos learning
* Strong spiritual foundation
Baseline in my definition is the powerbase that a person requires to have to make a valuable contribution to the marketplace with the current reality. Every year, the person’s capacity increases – shifting the baseline. For example, experience will shift the baseline to the next level – it has to. There is (generally) a difference between what a person with one year experience can produce as compared to what a person with two years of experience can produce. The graph below factors in the “standard shift” in the baseline for a typical person. This means that year over year if you increase your capacity that you are expected to increase anyway, the graph does not show any change in the baseline. That is what is expected of you from the marketplace – so there is no special consideration.
And a few others that are personal to me. I will aggressively disproportionately invest my time, energy, money and other resources in all of the above
For you, they may be different. You and your mentors and teachers can figure out what those are for you and start investing heavily in developing them.
As the baseline shifts, your swing to success and failures won’t matter much as they are operating out of the new baseline that you have created for your own case.
As your baseline deviates from the standard baseline in the marketplace, you start gaining competitive advantage that is hard to beat easily.
Any model that results from careful long-term investment and growth strategy will always have an advantage over the models created based on “short-term” and “fly by night” strategies.
All the best and have a great weekend.
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Note 1: For links to the other 188 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic:
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Note 2: The first 25 entries in the series have been packaged in a ChangeThis manifesto that was published on September 07, 2005. You can download that manifesto here:
ChangeThis Manifesto: 25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself
Note 3: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published on August 8, 2007. Here is the link:
ChangeThis Manifesto: Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists
Posted under Distinguish yourself.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 21 Jun 2008, 7:02 PM - Leave Comment
If you want to be an amateur graffiti creator, you don’t require a lot of skills. You can pretty much get away with anything. Of course, there are professionals here too. I am not talking about those 1% of the people – 99% of the people that engage in graffiti are doing this for a purpose that is not noble.
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| Photo Courtesy: Sean Hawkey (via Flickr) |
Now, the question is do you engage in graffiti?
If you go to a blog and make a comment that is not relevant to the conversation, you are engaging in graffiti
If you write a review for a book on Amazon and not say anything of material value, you are engaging in graffiti
If you join a conversation and talk nonsense, you are engaging in graffiti
If you join a discussion group and engage in a fight with others for no reason, you are engaging in graffiti
Just graffiti and spray painters cause a lot of harm to the owners to the building, engaging in introducing noise anywhere will cause a lot of harm to others who are engaged in that community, website, blog or company.
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Note 1: For links to the other 187 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic:
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Note 2: The first 25 entries in the series have been packaged in a ChangeThis manifesto that was published on September 07, 2005. You can download that manifesto here:
ChangeThis Manifesto: 25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself
Note 3: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published on August 8, 2007. Today it is ranked #40. I am overwhelmed by the support for this. Thank you. Here is the link:
ChangeThis Manifesto: Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists
Posted under Distinguish yourself.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 11 Jun 2008, 6:59 AM - 3 Comments
Distinguishing oneself is not easy for anyone and it is not a one-time thing. If you are distinguishing yourself by the kind of expertise you have and if that expertise is in demand, soon others will follow suit and commoditize. If you are distinguishing yourself by writing a book and the theme of the book is gaining traction, soon others will follow suit and there will be many books on the same topic.
Distinguishing yourself is a lifetime project and as you succeed in this project, the standards for continued success get higher. That is part of the deal. You just have to get used to it.
Whatever it is that you are offering to the world, if it is unique enough the marketplace won’t know that such an offer exists. In fact, let your offer better be unique otherwise you will be in a rat race right out of the gate. Since your offer is unique and the marketplace does not know that such an offer exists, it is your responsibility to raise awareness of the need for an offer such as the one you are offering.
In other words, you make a bold promise and have enough accomplishments to prove that you have the structure to fulfill that promise. That is the first step. In parallel, you engage in activities that will help the marketplace see that there is a need for listening to your promise.
Yesterday I was at North Carolina and while coming back, I picked up the airline magazine. I found an advertisement from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (actually there were many advertisements from the airport) that talked about their Business Valet and Curbside Valet parking services. This is not available in all the airports. Charlotte-Douglas knows that and wants to ensure that “we know” that such a service exists. So when there is a need, it is in our awareness that we can use their valet service.
That was a simple example. You can extend this to yourself by asking the question:
What activities should I be engaged in to increase the awareness for the need for my offers to the marketplace?
All the best!
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Note 1: For links to the other 186 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic:
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Note 2: The first 25 entries in the series have been packaged in a ChangeThis manifesto that was published on September 07, 2005. You can download that manifesto here:
ChangeThis Manifesto: 25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself
Note 3: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published on August 8, 2007. Today it is ranked #40. I am overwhelmed by the support for this. Thank you. Here is the link:
ChangeThis Manifesto: Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 20 Apr 2008, 5:24 PM - 2 Comments
Yesterday I was speaking a conference and one of the topics I was going to address was “Networking”.
During the informal get-together, several people approached me and exchanged cards. Three of them though gave their card and quickly explained what they do and ran away to give their cards to someone else. They didn’t seem to be really interested in who I was or whether I was interested in receiving their cards.
“Pushworking” is a term I coined for the practice of simply pushing your way to announce something whether the other person is interested or not.
Too many people engage in the art of pushworking while assuming that they are engaged in networking. If you are one of them, you lose twice. First, you won’t really get the benefit of networking and second, you may leave an impression with the other person that you are not someone that should take seriously.
The metric for networking is not the quantity of cards that you collect or give out but the assessments you create in other people that “you can be a positive possibility in their futures”
Stop Pushworking and Start Networking!
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Note 1: For links to the other 185 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic:
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Note 2: The first 25 entries in the series have been packaged in a ChangeThis manifesto that was published on September 07, 2005. You can download that manifesto here:
ChangeThis Manifesto: 25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself
Note 3: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published on August 8, 2007. Today it is ranked #41. I am overwhelmed by the support for this. Thank you. Here is the link:
ChangeThis Manifesto: Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists
Posted under Distinguish yourself.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 06 Apr 2008, 5:05 PM - 1 Comment
This concept is courtesy of my insightful friend Ravi Char of Musings on Information Security. Thank you Ravi.
There is a saying “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression“. While this still holds good, I think time has come to update the saying to one or more of the following:
1. Without a good zeroth impression, you may not even get a chance to make a first impression
2. A stellar first impression rescue you from a stupid zeroth impression
So what is a zeroth impression?
Zeroth Impression is an assessment people can make of you without even talking to you. How can they do that? Simply by researching and listening to the gossip on and off the web. To start with, one can simply search on your name on one or more of the following:
1. Google
2. Facebook
3. LinkedIn
4. Technorati
5. Google Blogsearch
6. Squidoo
and find out “what you said” or “what has been said about you” (especially from people that the reader trusts) in the past. Combine this with what people are saying about you offline, one can make a reasonable assessment about “who you are” and that is your Zeroth Impression.
Whether you want it or not, you now have a responsibility to pay attention to your Zeroth impression. If you are doing bad in this department, you may already by losing opportunities to make your first impression. If you do get lucky and make a first impression, remember that people are already watching you with a lens that has been formed based on your Zeroth Impression.
Cut it whatever way you like – you don’t have a choice but to pay attention to your Zeroth Impression.
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Note 1: For links to the other 184 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic:
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Note 2: The first 25 entries in the series have been packaged in a ChangeThis manifesto that was published on September 07, 2005. You can download that manifesto here:
ChangeThis Manifesto: 25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself
Note 3: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published on August 8, 2007. Today it is ranked #44. I am overwhelmed by the support for this. Thank you. Here is the link:
ChangeThis Manifesto: Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists
Posted under Distinguish yourself.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 11 Dec 2007, 11:42 PM - 1 Comment
Last week I was talking to a potential investor about a potential opportunity to invest. After the first sentence, the investor said “Raj, I don’t need to hear more about it. That space is not interesting for us.”
We talked about other companies and one of the companies was of deep interest and we ended up talking for at least half an hour on that one company.
Because of the long-term relationship we had developed, this person was interested in hearing about more than one idea. Fortunately, the idea number 4 made its way through to him.
Of course, this is not common. If I didn’t have a prior relationship with this person, there was no way I could have pitched him several ideas. In real life, most of the time, we get one chance to get our idea across. That idea has to pass through that recipient’s “filter” of what he thinks is a good idea. If it does not, then chances are that you are wasting your time.
In the above example, it was clear to me that I had not done my home work. If I had done my home work, I would not have discussed the first three ideas with him. Discussing those three ideas was clearly a waste of his time and my time too.
In this fast moving world, people don’t have a lot of time to listen to things that are not relevant to them. So they put up filters to avoid more input. What may be gold for you may be junk for them. This may mean that they may not get to hear some “really good” ideas but that’s a price they are willing to pay for the convenience.
Really, what they are missing (“really cool ideas”) should not be your problem. Your objective is to get across your ideas. Understanding the recipient’s filters is a key step in helping you achieve this objective.
How can you understand the other person’s filter?
For starters, you can do one or more of the following:
* reading their blog
* talking to people that know this person
* reading his or her bio
* asking the person directly
or simply speaking
* investing time in learning about the other person’s interests from any credible source.
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Note 1: For the other 183 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Note 2: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published on August 8, 2007. Today it is ranked #55. I am overwhelmed by the support for this. Thank you. For those who have read it, I request you to forward the link to others who may benefit from it. Here is the link:
ChangeThis Manifesto: Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists
Popularity: 44% [?
Posted under Distinguish yourself.
By Rajesh Setty on Wed 26 Sep 2007, 9:28 AM - 2 Comments
I don’t think people have a dearth of ideas or opportunities. There are literally hundreds of ideas and opportunities that people can pursue. However, there is a physical limitation on people’s capacity to execute on them. You are gold if you can enhance someone’s capacity as they pursue their life’s passion. However, when you are young, it costs you a lot more to add capacity to someone else because you don’t have the skills, connections and/or a powerful identity in the marketplace. Sadly, for most people even after they spend a decade in their careers, their capacity to add capacity to others is very limited. They may want to help but they don’t have the capacity to to provide good help.
Think about this. Someone that matters most to you is pursuing something important. The value of succeeding in that is, let’s say $100K for that person. First, if that person does not think you can help, he may not even ask your help. Let’s assume that he thinks you can help him with that project. Now, the cost for you to help him depends on your “current capacity” in the marketplace. If you less capacity to help, it costs you a lot more to help. As your own capacity increases, the cost to help drops drastically. What is important to notice is that the value of completing the project for your friend is $100K – irrespective of how much it costs for you to help him with the project. This means just one thing – as you work to build capacity in the marketplace, you can add higher value to people that matter most to you at a very low cost to you.
If you help the right people, they will be grateful to you for the “value” you bring to them. It may have costed very little to you to bring but they will still “thank” you for the value that you brought to them. The moment this starts happening you have superior leverage relative to others in the marketplace.
To summarize, watch your “current capacity” in the marketplace to add capacity to other people. You can assess that based on the kind of requests for help that you are getting. Once you determine your current state, think about what you can do to take it to a whole new level in the next few years. If you stick to that plan with discipline, you can start seeing magic soon!
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Note 1: For the other 182 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Note 2: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published exactly on August 8, 2007. Today it is ranked #77. I am overwhelmed by the support for this. Thank you. For those who have read it, I request you to forward the link to others who may benefit from it. Here is the link:
ChangeThis Manifesto: Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists
Posted under Distinguish yourself.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 09 Sep 2007, 9:30 AM - 3 Comments
If we super-simplify what we do on a daily basis, we can say that we are
1. doing what we want to do or
2. doing what someone else wants us to do or
3. doing what we HAVE to do.
In the first case, it is clear that you are totally in-charge. What kind of activities you engage in depends on you and the self-discipline you have.
In the second case, it really depends on what kinds of requests you are getting. If you are constantly getting requests to perform activities that are considered a “commodity”, that is what your identity will be. Alternatively, if you are constantly getting requests that are of “high value” to the stake holders, you are automatically getting a premium.
Watch the requests that came your way in the last three months.
1. How many of these do you consider “commodity requests”?
2. How many of these do you consider “high value” requests?
3. What percentage of requests (when fulfilled) will take you to a whole new level?
4. What percentage of requests will bring the best out of you?
5. What percentage of requests will extend your personal brand?
6. What percentage of requests are in your area of strengths and will enhance your strengths even further?
You don’t have to answer this to anyone else. The only person who can make a judgement on the quality of requests is you. If you are not happy with the quality of help requests that are coming your way, what can you do in the next three months to change this?
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Note 1: For the other 181 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Note 2: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published exactly a month ago. Today it is one of the top 100 manifestos. I am overwhelmed by the support for this. Thank you. For those who have read it, I request you to forward the link to others who may benefit from it. Here is the link:
ChangeThis Manifesto: Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists
Posted under Distinguish yourself.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 24 Aug 2007, 7:49 PM - 5 Comments
Think about an ATM machine. Did you remember an ATM machine today? Unless you wanted cash, you probably did not think of an ATM machine. That’s not a problem. In fact, it would be scary if you were thinking about an ATM machine when you didn’t NEED cash. This is also fine because you don’t expect the ATM machine to be thinking about you anytime – day or night <smile>
Well, friends are different. They are not like ATM machines who are there to just serve you whenever you NEED them. Unfortunately, in real life, many people think about their friends like ATM machines.
Let’s think about two scenarios – both involving contact from “friends” from whom you have not heard for a long time.
Scenario 1:
Think about someone from whom you have not heard from for a long time. Out of the blue the person calls you and talks to you as if you are his childhood pal and then somewhere in the middle – he introduces a request. He also behaves as if the “request” was not what triggered the call. You know what is happening there. You help him with his request anyway. What happens next? The person disappears for a long time again. He re-appears once again when he has a new request, of course.
Scenario 2:
Think about the same scenario but this time with a different person. This person has not called you for a long time but when he called you – he called you with an opportunity that might be interesting for you. Yes, the person was involved in that opportunity but he CHOSE you amongst many of his other friends to present this opportunity. Whether you take up that opportunity or not, the person may disappear again but when he calls again, he has another opportunity to present to you.
Who would you rather be friends with?
If you don’t want to be treated by your friends like an ATM machine, you should not expect your friends to be treated like one too.
In other words, you don’t want to feel “used”. Your friends don’t either.
I am not advocating that you should not ask for help. In fact, You need help and your friends need help. There is no other way but to give and get help. The problem comes when you remember your “friends” only when you “need” them.
Why don’t you take the first step this weekend – remember a few friends with whom you have lost contact for a long period. Pick up the phone and call them or send them an email. Bonus: Think about presenting them with an opportunity during this contact. It can be as simple as sharing with them a great book that you read recently or an idea that might do something good for their business or life or both.
Have a great weekend.
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Note: For the other 180 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Posted under Distinguish yourself.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 23 Aug 2007, 8:35 PM - 2 Comments
Note: This is the 900th post on this blog. A BIG thank you to all of you – long term supporters and new readers. You can access the older posts in the archives page.
Being flexible is an asset. Being quick to change is an asset. You might have heard from someone – “Don’t be rigid, be flexible”. Even when you know that it’s good advice you may not get around to be flexible.
One reasons for not being flexible today will be your actions in the past. Let us take some scenarios:
* You stretched beyond your limits and bought a cool home a few years ago and are paying a big mortgage. Someone presents you with a dream opportunity in a startup. Less salary, more stock but great work and huge potential. You REALLY want to take it up. But your hands are tied.
* You joined an MBA program about 12 months ago. This is a three-year program and the company is paying part of the tuition. You get presented with a great opportunity with another company. You want to take that up but you don’t. You want to complete the MBA program as you are getting this education at a 50% discount.
* Your passion is art. You always wanted to be an artist. Of course you studied engineering and you are an engineer now. You want to be an artist but the money is good as an engineer. You postpone your decision to switch and continue as an engineer
Current flexibility is shaped by your past actions. Similarly today’s actions will shape your future flexibility. Past is over but the future is yet to come. Think about some of your actions today at work and at home. Have you given enough thought about the implications of these actions on your future flexibility.
We urge that organizations have to be agile and nimble. This advice applies more aptly to individuals than the organizations. If your current actions may make you rigid in the future, you may be digging a hole for yourself (very slowly). Time to think again!
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Note: For the other 179 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself
Posted under Announcement, Distinguish yourself.
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