Cool post with some gems!

I like how you said “How to do the same things as everyone else and succeed wildly”.

You’re so right when you said you only need to have ONE competitive advantage over your competitors. Find that advantage and work hard to make it a benefit for your customers.

Nice post!
Welly Mulia

PS. I’ll be emailing you. Be on the lookout for that

The best come-back I ever heard was from Liam Gallagher of Oasis fame. He had allegedly trashed a hotel room, including throwing the TV out of the window (not clever, I know). When he was asked “hasn’t that all been done before?”, he replied, “not by me it hasn’t”. Although the subject of the conversation was mindless destruction of property, I couldn’t help admiring Liam’s determination to find fresh ways of approaching something that had been done by others many times before.

Just found Kamut at my heath food store. Trying to eat the kamut berries is like chewing a mouthful of slightly softened bbs. So I recommend the kamut grains/flakes. They look like oatmeal, cook up like that but are slightly softer to chew than steel cut oats. Have a mild flavor like oats. But a good breakfast cereal diversion.

Thanks for the articles. I really do appreciate your insights. Cathie

Right on.

I love it when people tell me “You can’t do that, it’s impossible.”

My answer is “Just watch me do it.”

I was told my one man design studio couldn’t compete with major advertising agencies in my town and market…so I didn’t. Some of those agencies became clients by hiring me to do some over flow work when they got busy or for smaller projects on a contract basis.

Pretty cool.

As far as thats been done before, thats because it usually works. Look at Saturday morning breakfast cereal commercials…they have notchanged much over the past 30 or so years except for the computer animation…but why are they all pretty mcuh the same? Because the commericals sell alot of cereal.

Many people in life don’t want you to succeed; they feel it reflects poorly on them. Their lack of support, criticisms etc all show this.

I’ve become a little more thick-skinned and now just go for it – regardless of the flak I might get from others… you have to push on, it’s your business to succeed!

It reminds me of a Richard Branson book I read in which he spoke about his airline business.
BA was already running an airline and people tried taking them on and failed.
It had all been done before in terms of the routes and competition. People called him a mad man. But look what happened, a different approach and now one of the worlds largest airline companies.

I have many different project all unique to some extent. If someone tells me it has been done before my response is not the way I do it.

i say PFFT! to em (some saliva usually end up in their faces)

I’m also inspired by the “that’s definitely been done before!” story. It’s so easy to be demotivated and feel like giving up when you see dozens and dozens of other businesses/blogs out there fighting for survival, and you’re just about to begin. Most of the time it’s just the mindset that will differentiate yourself from store next door.

I read your other posts about putting personality into your biz and make a multi-million dollar company out of it. It’s just wayyyyy better than a faceless biz (read: robot).

Thanks for the great ideas Erica!

P/S I will also watch the Undercover Boss, been wanted to do that just never remembered it (not a huge TV fan).