OTHERS ALREADY EXIST - BE DIFFERENT, BE YOU (with these 7 advises)

We've been told many times that everyone is unique - with all its strength and weakness. However, when it comes to any resolution or step forward, we are compared, measured or benchmarked with others. And ultimately ask ourselves: how can I succeed in this competition.

I'd like to share some food for thoughts from a presentation I gave for Master Students in Singapore, who asked me openly: how can we differentiate ourselves during interview processes for our first job?

The short answer is:

Your difference is your uniqueness -

be yourself!

And here's guidance on how to find and shape yourself:

1.) ORIENTATION - SET YOUR GOALS FROM INSIDE OUT

• Explore and discover a lot, but finally, orient yourself to the way you like
• Disqualify external factors like title, salary, company - value the internal factors like passion, love, enthusiasm
• Get advise from others, listen to stories from role models to adjust and fine-tune your way
• Don’t let others set your way, they should inspire and influence your orientation
• Ask WHY - not WHAT job to do or HOW much to earn – these are everchanging external factors

2.) DECISION - FAIL FAST, FAIL OFTEN, FAIL SAFE 

• Success comes through well-oriented, well-thought decisions (fun fact: a human being makes 30.000 decisions every day)
• Never delay a decision (e.g. new year resolution, new job, new home)
• Reflect and learn from wrong decisions, take ownership, don’t finger-point
• Decide on one thing, don’t think too long (try and fail fast and often)
• Stick on your decision, take the time, be patient

3.) FOCUS - FOLLOW ON COURSE UNTIL SUCCESS

• Success takes time and comes with well-oriented decisions
• Don’t distract yourself from others fame or successes, get inspired by them
• Be focus, and keep on focusing your very own decision and path
• “I worked hard for 30 years to become a billionaire overnight”, Harry Belafonte, American Actor & Singer

4.) DISCIPLINE - YOUR SECRET WEAPON

• You can be focused only with discipline and resilience
• Going the last mile and the hard way will lead to a huge reward
• Discipline might be painful, but gets easy if meaningful and well-oriented
• Can be your secret weapon and differentiator 
• Look-up Kobe Bryant's vita (RIP) - he crazy disciplined and damn successful

5.) MINDFULNESS - HANG OUT WITH THE RIGHT ONES

• Be mindful about yourself and your surroundings
• Who inspires and influences you - be aware of the “right” people and environment
• Give credits to corporate culture, your future boss and potential teammates 
• "Show me your friend and I tell you who you are"

6.) FITTING - THE MOST FLEXIBLE ONES WILL WIN

• Everyone intuitively adjusts to places and situations and follow it feelings
• Where am I fit into: Government - very safe and reputed job, but boring or Startup - on fire but stressful
• Don’t go with the flow, go with changing requirements, technology and market trends
• Be bold to try out new things, show your flexibility
• Ask yourself: Me + Company = Great fit? Am I in the right place?

Until here, everyone could easily apply the advice and guidance above. But if so, then everyone ends up being more or less the same without any difference, right? :)

So, add one last thing to the points and get unique:

7.) YOUR PERSONALITY - YOUR SIGNATURE

• Applying points #1-6 will put you in a great position to find yourself and shape your profile - with all its good, bad but different flavours
• Your personality will position you uniquely against the mainstream
• Trust and personality are more valuable than experience or knowledge (imagine: would you engage your 16-year old neighbour as a babysitter or a 32-years old stranger who has 10 years of babysitting experience?)
• Technology can not help to built trust, your personality can!

I hope, this article will not only help job seekers but can be a guide for everyone looking to shape their personality and the way forward in business and life.

Thanks for reading! Happy to get your thoughts and comments.

Yours, Ekrem