On Thursday I wrote that Seth Godin only likes to do something if he can do it “really well” which is consistent with his message to companies to be “remarkable”. Now while that is great advice for a company to only do things well that you can be remarkable at, I don’t believe it to be true for the individual in general.
Companies, to be successful must have a mission and have everything they do fit into that mission. If they put in half efforts, they will get less than half results. It is the additional 20% or the “extra mile” that gives a company their results.
Individuals are different in that sense because people have to discover their mission in life. They don’t have a great idea one day and define their life based on that idea. They have to keep trying new things and see what they enjoy and what sticks. People go to school to get a rounded education to see what is out there and hopefully begin their journey in life. Each new day brings new opportunities to the individual. He can change jobs, careers, start new businesses volunteer, vacation and retire. Each step of the way he can try new things and adopt them or drop them on his journey through life. It is the trying new things out that will prepare him to get lucky down the line. I must say though that this advice is only when you are playing around on your own and testing out the waters. When you are starting a business, applying for a job or to a school, or giving a presentation, the individual must also be remarkable. It is the best way to guarantee that you will be successful.
For companies, every step has to be so well thought out and they can’t just pick things up and drop them whenever they feel like it. It would look terrible for a company to start a blog and not update it for a month or to get a twitter account, collect followers and never update. An individual can do these things. If he enjoys keeping the blog or updating his tweets, he can do something with it. But if he doesn’t, nobody is really going to think differently about him.
If you are a business, be remarkable and only do what you can do better than anyone else. If you are an individual, try anything and everything that even remotely interests you because it is the journey that defines who you are and who you become.