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Lesson 9 - Remarkable
Becoming Remarkable.
Seth Godin talked about becoming ‘remarkable’ in his book
Purple Cow. As Godin presented the
concept, he and his family were in France and as they drove they noticed all
the cows in the fields. So colorful, idyllic
so they thought. But as their drive
continued, they didn’t even notice the cows – the cows were now ‘commonplace’. He makes the point that the only cows that would
have appeared on their radar at that point would have to be really different –
like Purple Cows.
The idea of a purple cow is really to be REMARKABLE – to stand
out among the others.
Do you need to be a purple cow? How are you going to stand out with the over
100 million other college students from around the world?
So, how do you become remarkable?
It isn’t really from the appearance – a purple cow would
still out; a college graduate in a job interview in a purple suit (maybe with a
bright orange tie) would stand out, and would probably not be hired (“too weird”).
So, some thoughts on being remarkable:
- · Be great in your field (see previous discussions on ‘good to great’
- · Have a great attitude
- · Have experiences that make you remarkable
- · Have a great personality
Be great in your field:
Okay, when you graduate, it is going to be really hard to be recognized
for being great in your field. For
discussions sake, let’s say you are an accounting major. How can you be recognized for being great in
your field? Good Grades? Maybe.
Great faculty recommendations?
Maybe. Great internship
experiences? Maybe. Service in the community to non-profits or to
third world countries? Maybe.
How about some out-of-the-ordinary ways to be
remarkable? Could you publish an
academic paper with a professor that gets into an academic journal? How many undergraduates are published in
academic journals? (Not many).
Could you develop and implement an accounting system for
non-profit organizations that wins recognition in a competition?
Could you work with a computing student to develop a new and
innovative way for secure payment processing, maybe for secure payment on an
smart phone using your finger logon component?
Could you work with a government agency (like the Internal
Revenue Service or FBI) to f ully analyze fraudulent accounting reports. Or work with the Small Business
Administration to set up accounting systems for new businesses – especially for
those who have no accounting background.
Have a Great Attitude:
Having a great attitude is almost always remarkable. We go through life with the ‘average’ folks,
so seeing somebody smile, somebody say “have a nice day” and really, really
mean it, to stop and listen to the person you are talking with.
Have remarkable experiences:
Some of the remarkable experiences can go with your major
field; but you can have others. Work in a soup kitchen, climb Mount Everest,
do marathons and triathlons, take a Boy Scout troop (or others) wilderness
camping for three weeks, organize a community wide event. There are many ways to be remarkable and to
demonstrate it.
Have a Great Personality:
Having a great attitude is part of having a great
personality. Think of people who are
very personable. People you’d like to just
sit and talk to. How can you be that ‘instant’
friend and person that people will recognize quickly and say “Definitely a team
player and definitely one that we’d love to have on our team”.
Assignment:
- Think about what you can do to be remarkable – to be a ‘purple cow’ in a black-and-white cow world. Write an essay about how you are going to make yourself remarkable this year.
- Develop goals to become remarkable
Quote for today – being remarkable sometimes can get you in
trouble: ““If you are too afraid to offend anyone, then I'm afraid you may not
be able to do anything remarkable” ― Bernard
Kelvin Clive
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