There’s no such thing as too much when it comes to setting life goals.
Nobody knows the best that he can do. Limits are only in the mind.
Differentiate on the basis of the only thing which counts – Quality. Be the best in the world at what you do. Forget everything else – just focus on being the best at whatever it is that you do and the rest will follow. And remember, being the best in the world is easy; it is a matter only of one degree. What do I mean?
In 2012, in the Men’s 100 meter race, the difference between the Olympic Gold medal and no medal was 0.25 seconds. (Usain Bolt: Jamaica: 9.63 sec. Ryan Bailey: USA: 9.88 sec.)
In the Indy 500, 2015 the difference between the 1st and 2nd was 0.10 seconds. The difference in prize money was $ 1,656,500 (One million six hundred thousand++).
Only one degree because until 99 they are cents – one more and it is not cents any more – it is a dollar. We never talk about cent value. We talk about dollar value.
Wisdom is the ability to discern difference. The difference between good and evil, benefit and harm between people, circumstances etc.
Life’s assignments are from Allahﷻ. We don’t decide. We discover. When we are in the right assignment, we have no rivals. A fish out of water, can’t walk, can’t talk, can’t breathe, is clumsy and flops on the earth. But put it in the water and it darts away like a flash, the epitome of speed and grace. Right place, right time. If you are in the right assignment, you have no rivals. So instead of trying to overcome weaknesses, stop and ask if you are in the right assignment. In the right assignment, your ‘weaknesses’ will instantly turn into what they really are, your strengths.
Weakness less about what you have, but more about where you are.
Plant seeds for whatever you want to harvest. So ask yourselves what you want to harvest. Then plant those seeds. Remember that the seed that leaves my hand does not leave my life. It goes into my future ad multiplies. And unless it leaves my hand it can do nothing. So anything that leaves my hand and gets planted in my life is my seed. That will come back to me as my harvest. But anything that I retain in my hand is what I hoarded and didn’t plant. The reality is that even the worst harvest is more than the seed. Give up what you have to get what you have been promised. Nothing leaves the heavens until something leaves the earth. When you give what you see, you get what you can’t see.
Only ‘Overcomers’ are rewarded in life. So every time you ask for a blessing you get an enemy. Enemies don’t come to harm you. They come to open the doors of blessings for you. If there was no Goliath, David would have remained a shepherd boy.
The only way to differentiate is to show how you can be of service to others. People don’t care what you have until they see how they can benefit from it. People don’t care what you know until they know that you care. So show them. We always introduce ourselves in terms of what we have, who we are and where we came from (country, tribe, school, university or organization). While the other person is interested in one things only, ‘What can s/he do for me?’ They don’t care about any of the stuff you told them. Until they hear something that touches their life.
Let me illustrate. Let’s say, my laptop showed me the dreaded ‘Blue Screen.’ I am horrified because like most people I didn’t back up my data and I am now looking at disappearing from the face of the planet because all my data is probably gone down the drain. Then I meet a guy on the train and we get chatting. He tells me that he is an ‘IT Professional’ (that’s how all Indians introduce themselves) from Bengaluru (they imagine that others also like what was done to a perfectly innocent, easy to pronounce name to suit some political urge). He also tells me (and remember his accent it not the easiest for me to understand while my Californian drawl goes clean over his head) that he is in America to study and he was sponsored by his brother in law’s sister. While he is plying me with all this (to him) very interesting detail, I am telling myself, ‘NEVER START A CONVERSATION WITH AN INDIAN EVER AGAIN. I SWEAR I WILL NEVER DO IT. HOW DO I GET OUT OF THIS NOW WITHOUT BEING RUDE?’ Then suddenly I hear in the incessant one-sided chatter that he considers his introduction, ‘I specialize in data recovery after computers crash. You know when you see a blue screen? That means your computer crashed and if you didn’t back up your data, you are finished. That’s my expertise. I can recover all that data and you are back on track.’
Suddenly I forget that he is Indian. I forget what I just swore. I forget that I made the biggest mistake in my life starting a conversation with an Indian. Instead the same guy is manna from heaven (don’t take that literally. Indians are not good to eat), gift of god, the best thing that happened to me. I don’t care about his accent or that he smells of curry or comes from Bengaluru. I love him. I can kiss him (won’t of course). I thank god, my good fortune, the train, the conductor, the seating sequence, you-name-it, that I met this guy.
So what changed? He is a still a lousy Indian geek who doesn’t know how to introduce himself. What changed is that I suddenly realized how he can help me. So who am I seeing in this conversation? Him or me? After my computer regains consciousness I will probably forget this guy. But if I am a hiring manager then this guy just talked himself (even if accidentally) into a job. He delivered an ‘Elevator Speech’ par excellence though obviously he’s never heard the term. That is the meaning of differentiating on the basis of speaking to people’s hearts. They don’t care what you say, until they see how it can help them. So differentiating is about doing this deliberately, not waiting for lucky accidents.
Differentiation creates Brand. Brand creates loyalty. Loyalty gives you influence. Without differentiating you are one grain of rice in a sack. You are still rice, but one grain in a sack.