Everyone wants to be different. They saw their best pals doing something different. Wanting to be different, they follow what their best pals did. And we have now so many people doing the same thing to be different. How does that make you different?
We have a natural tendency to follow. But to stand out, this herding behaviour must be avoided. The next time u think about writing your resume, going for your interview, preparing your presentation, design a marketing campaign, instead of looking to break the clutter, pick an environment without clutter, you are probably being different already.
I’m not saying instead of wearing skirt and blouse for interviews, you wear a kimono. Being different and being silly are two different things. Don’t be silly, but be different.
For instance doing a presentation, many would prepare powerpoint slides to aid their presentation. Many will be looking to out-beat one another with animations, creative design, colours to impress, to break the clutter, to be different. Imagine it’s your turn to present. Instead of hooking your laptop to the projector screen, you brought in a gigantic flip chart, and start presenting your points. How’s that for being different?
Instead of sending out your resume via email (which everyone does), you send out by post.
Remember, to stand out from the crowd, you need to avoid the crowd altogether.
