2-3-4 Friday 

‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’

1 thought

What makes you different, exceptional, and worth hiring?

You might show me your CV, and tell me that you’ve gotten a 4.92 GPA, a first class honours, and you have a track record of achievements you’ve gained in university.

For the last 3 months, I’ve been hiring new designers. Our team has grown from a tiny 1 a year ago, to 7.

But I still didn’t know how I was choosing these people. Beyond the fact that the Indonesian designers we were hiring were cheaper, better, and faster.

They deserve to eat our lunch.

And if you’re competing in a global marketplace, how do you excel?

A few weeks ago I asked a politician working in the education sector about how Singaporeans would remain competitive in a global marketplace.

He shot back,

what’s one special thing you can do that no one else can do?

It’s a good question.

He gave a personal example. When he was studying economics, he knew that many would take the typical modules. Econometrics, statistics, macro-economics.

He chose to take something different in game theory and behavioral science. Not just to be different, but because he was interested.

He distinguished himself from the pack by learning something different, and eventually doing something different.

This sounds easy, but it’s not that easy.

You don’t just have to do something different, but you have to stick with it.

1 talk

Don’t just be different.

Stay different.

1 tip

In Jeff Bezos’ final shareholder letter as CEO of Amazon, he wrote,

here is a passage from Richard Dawkins’ (extraordinary) book The Blind Watchmaker. It’s about a basic fact of biology.

“Staving off death is a thing that you have to work at. Left to itself – and that is what it is when it dies – the body tends to revert to a state of equilibrium with its environment.

Our bodies, for instance, are usually hotter than our surroundings, and in cold climates they have to work hard to maintain the differential. When we die the work stops, the temperature differential starts to disappear, and we end up the same temperature as our surroundings.

Not all animals work so hard to avoid coming into equilibrium with their surrounding temperature, but all animals do some comparable work. For instance, in a dry country, animals and plants work to maintain the fluid content of their cells, work against a natural tendency for water to flow from them into the dry outside world.

If they fail they die.

More generally, if living things didn’t work actively to prevent it, they would eventually merge into their surroundings, and cease to exist as autonomous beings. That is what happens when they die.”

If we fail to differentiate, we die.

And differentiating is not a one-time checklist.

It’s a lifetime process.

I want to close with this final story.

June 5th marks the fifth year of our existence as a company.

Some of the most painful personal moments have come in business. There are many times when I do want to give up, and I wonder why I even bother to do this to myself. There are easier jobs to do, and easier money to be earned.

Owning a business is the biggest risk one can take. Because you believe in something you’ve created, to feed you, grow you, and to do the same thing for others.

You believe you’ve something to add to the world. And the world is going to tell you,

get lost.

I don’t need your thing.

Who do you think you are?

I’ve faced that so many times in my life.

Once, I travelled for an hour, going to a small industrial factory, walking up the stairs, sweating in the humidity, only to end up sitting in their meeting room and to be told that they didn’t really need our help.

When you start to differentiate, you’re going to face that too.

But I urge you - differentiate, and be comfortable in your new skin, because that’s the only way you’ll truly come alive.

John

Live Young, Live Well - Work Your Love