Why You Need to be High and Right: Remarkable News Issue #3

Only one chart is necessary to explain innovation, marketing, sales, evangelism, employment, and personal relationships. Consultants, top-ten lists, white papers, or therapists are not needed. 

If you can understand this chart, you will have it made. The vertical axis measures the degree of differentiation or uniqueness of your product, service, or skills. The horizontal axis measures the amount of value of your product, service, or skills. 

Let’s examine all four corners. 

• Bottom right corner. You are valuable, but not unique. The good news is that you’re valuable. The bad news is that there are other sources for what you do. You are easily replaced, so you often have to compete on price.
• Top left corner. You are not valuable, and no one else does what you do. You own a market that doesn’t exist. You’re a bozo.
• Bottom left corner. The worst corner of all. You are neither valuable nor unique. You truly suck because what you can do is neither valuable nor unique. This is like being one of five places to buy dog food online when no one wants to buy dog food online because of shipping costs and having to be at home when UPS makes a delivery.
• Top right corner. This “high and to the right” corner is the holy grail. You do something valuable, and you are the only source for it. This is where you make margin, money, and history. 

A great example of a product that was high and to the right is the iPod. At the time, it was the only device with a user-interface that a mere mortal could operate with a wide and legal selection of music at an inexpensive price ($.99/song). It was unique and valuable...and, therefore, successful.

This is what product development and marketing boils down to: creating something unique and valuable and then convincing the marketplace that it is unique and valuable. It’s also an excellent model for employment because a person who is unique and valuable is hard to replace and can command high compensation.

And if you are a unique and valuable spouse, you’ll be cherished. In short, IMHO, all of life is about getting high and to the right. 

From the Remarkable Archives

Speaking of unique and valuable products, there’s Mathematica, created by Steve Wolfram. He’s the guy who got a Ph.D. in physics at 20 and the MacArthur Award at 21. Listening to his episode of Remarkable People will make your head explode. 

His thoughts and ideas are so deep that it takes me ten years to recover from talking to him, so it’s going to be a while before he’s on my podcast again. 

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More Remarkable News:

You need to come up with better email greetings and sign-offs. https://www.fastcompany.com/90469176/stop-annoying-people-with-these-email-greetings-and-sign-offs

Worms can eat plastic and poop alcohol. Not on a large scale yet, but still. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkart/2020/03/09/mysterious-worms-eat-plastic-and-poop-alcohol/

The secret to happiness is not more stuff. It’s listening to more podcasts...just kidding. https://www.fastcompany.com/90475255/cornell-researchers-discovered-the-secret-to-lifelong-happiness-and-its-not-buying-more-stuff

The history of handwashing is more interesting than you’d think. https://www.history.com/news/hand-washing-disease-infection

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Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist Canva, an online graphic design tool. He’s also a brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz and an executive fellow of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He was previously the chief evangelist of Apple and a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation. His books include Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life, The Art of the Start 2.0, The Art of Social Media, and fifteen others. He has a BA from Stanford and an MBA from UCLA, as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College. He and his wife, Beth, have four children.