There’s something sinister creeping about that I’d like to get your thoughts on.
It’s called imitation and is responsible for the destruction of unique talent around the world. Imitators look for a success story with an ending they like and attempt to recreate success for themselves by reenacting that story to the letter. It’s very contagious.
You can usually spot them from a distance. Imitators want to know about the tool, not the inspiration. The platform, not the technique. The metrics, not the intangibles.
They talk a lot about hustle and tend to know all the buzzwords. But if you back imitators into a corner and ask them about how they hope to leverage their unique talents into personal success, you’ll get melty-smelty looks and no response.
I can’t be entirely down on the imitators though. They’re very serious about hustling and tend to be good about following through on their plans.
Here’s a perfect example of the sort of content an imitator comes up with: I call it, “The Jazz Pianist Imitator Follows MC Hammer’s Guide To Taking YouTube By Storm“.
It really doesn’t work very well, does it? The pianist is quite good but the talent is lost in the final product. We only see the attempt to copy MC Hammer’s success. It doesn’t work.
What misled project, platform, tool, or technique are you squandering your talent on through misinformation and desire to find another’s success instead of your own?
There is a solution:
3 Ways To Find Success Without Imitation
When you come in contact with a success story,
- Focus on the difficult portions of the story and find out how obstacles were overcome - The big leaps are fun to hear about but most of us are pretty good at dealing with success. You’ll learn more from hearing about the setbacks and daily grind of a specific project
- Plan your own journey based on points of inspiration instead of navigation – There are many ways to reach the summit. Make a point to gain a better understanding of your own path instead of looking for another one to follow.
- Act upon ideas that resonate deeply with you - If a new idea immediately seems like something you’ve been thinking all along and simply never put into words, you may be onto something useful.
As you go to conferences, read stories, and hear testimonies about stupendous successes, don’t fall for the allure of imitation. Keep your wits about you. There’s gold to be had but it’s always delivered with a truckload of things you don’t need. Pan out the good stuff and keep moving toward your own objective. You’re better at all this than you might think.
What would you add?
photo credit: ckaroli
Seth,
thank you for this post, very timely for me and helped with a direction of clarity I was looking for. Also great example you gave with the video.
thank you! you have been able to put into understandable words what I have thought of for quite some time now since I began my business back in 1976 and have know even previously to that point in time – that we are each and everyone of us unique individuals and when we begin to learn to use and master any of the tools available to us whether it is a paint brush – a camera – a computer or any of the new tools that can be found on the Internet – in our own unique way of handling them with our own unique style and imagination – then and only then will we be creating anything of value whether an experience or a product – for the people who we wish to provide these for –
all the best to you in all that you do!
Walter
Thank you, Walter! There’s definitely a rush to use specific tools because one person has been successful with it. Much of marketing/sponsorship works on that impulse. Allowing oneself to be different and seek excellence on an individual spectrum is scary stuff. I’m glad you’ve made a successful go of it!
I am headed to a conference soon but more needed to hear the reminder about the deeply resonating.
Thats precisely why I asked you not to read what Id sent along.
resonated deeply enough with me? Im not certain.
Now I’m intrigued. =)
The deeply resonating ideas tend to flow out pretty easily. It can be a lot of work formatting that idea for others, but stating the original form tends to go pretty well. For me, at least.
Good luck with your conference!
This is one of the primary problems with Twitter, in my opinion. There are so many people pointing you to case studies and resources and ‘fill in the blank’. Makes you think you need to keep up, do what they’re doing. There are also a million and one ‘how to’s’, which also tend to lend themselves well to imitation.
It’s a struggle, Seth, but I have this feeling that the worse it gets, the more likely it is that an ‘awakening’ of sorts will follow. There will come a point, I think, where the ONLY way to succeed will to be unique. To do your own thing, in your own way, and make a name for yourself in an original way.
You are such a hopeful dude. Inspirational, I tell you! =)
Yes, eventually all the oversubscribed and strung out people will be forced to back away into a more sustainable lifestyle.
There’s a reason the tortoise is reputed to have won multiple races.
Jeb Dickerson: “where the ONLY way to succeed will to be unique. ”
Gosh, let’s hope so…
I am not a big fan of imitation, whether it be business or pleasure. I guess many just don’t believe in their own uniqueness…
Steve
That might very well be the case: that people simply don’t feel that they have the independent capacity to be unique in a valuable way. But how to show them? Is it worth the effort?
I have always been an advocate for originality, so many times in my professional life i have witnessed a lot of people wanting to be so successful that they just imitate to the point that they already lose their own identity. Pretty sad.
If I may add Seth, i believe hard work is the only answer to success. There is nothing wrong with getting inspiration from other people’s work. But yes no imitating please.. Thanks Seth.. Love your work.
Yes, hard work is a very good way to find success. It requires work though and that’s something many are not willing to do. They just want the success. I think one misses out on the true joy of the success if it comes too easily. Then again, perhaps that’s just me comforting myself as I slog through the “hard work” portion of the journey. =)
very GOOD!!! =)
It is hard to be unique. It is hard to forge a new path. It is hard to travel the road not taken…
“two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the road less travelled by and that has made all the difference” Frost
I avoid the hard but every day it is clearer that the stress of hard work is better than the pain of compromise and mediocrity.
great post
Hi Steve!
Yes, I don’t think the joy of labor rewarded is lauded only by those who struggle to do things well. The difficulty of something is relative to the skill set, emotional state, and drive of the individual. The end results of similar labor might be dramatically different but the personal satisfaction can be great for both. I think.
I’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about how I can be more content with the results of my projects. This is not to say that I am trying to learn how to settle for inferior results. Rather, I’m interested in gaining a better grasp on how one finds personal satisfaction in a world infatuated with comparing every action to those of another.
It’s a project. Surely the results will be worth the effort? Perhaps not. I won’t know until I’m finished…and at that point I’ll be dead. That leads into an entirely different conversation. =)
Thanks!
Hey Seth,
This is an awesome post, sorry to be getting in so late. One of my questions is, what if you're flexing the creative muscles, starting to come up with ideas that sound really good to you and you start second guessing yourself and throwing them away out of fear of not being original enough or accidentally imitating instead of innovating? I ask because I find myself doing that more and more often as I change from a round peg into a round peg hammered into the square “MBA” hole.
Sorry to ask such a strange question, but it's been poking at me for a while.
B