Date 05/22/2008

Everything has become a commodity; we find more inexpensive versions of the same things. Companies quickly catch up with what others have done -- and even a good idea quickly becomes "commodicized." How do you keep your edge? How do you get remembered? How do you develop your SO -- your Stand Out factor?

Even though we know new, different and distinct is what gets people's attention, most of our services and products look like what people expect or what have already been done. We are stuck in a pattern doing what we've always done.

In Stand Out thinking, being different is key. The goal is to know what others do and insist on doing something better. We don't try to fit in; we separate ourselves because in a crowded marketplace fitting in is failing Standing is about creating something original, exciting and dynamic. It is about getting noticed and being remembered.

Over time we have become great at doing what others do. We learn to be satisfied with blending and fitting in. The good news is that we can relearn how to stand out.

Learn To Reconnect With Your Creative Side

More than 90 percent of five year olds are creative, but only five percent of 13 year olds (and older) are creative. We have trained ourselves out of being creative.

Train yourself back into creative thinking by learning how to revisit a problem, issue or opportunity in the following ways:

* Frame it differently. Make it a product, a hobby, an inanimate object, a cartoon, a food, a superhero, etc.
* See it from another perspective: man, woman, child, minority, friend, enemy, teacher, employee, customer, affluent, poor, honest, greedy, etc.
* Morph the problem by changing it to the best, worst, an object, a person, a policy, a fruit, a car, a game, etc.
* Link it to an unrelated item to see the correlations; identify how it is similar, how it is different. This forces the brain to see connections it would normally ignore.
* Use pictures to visualize the problem, issue or opportunity. How does the visual encourage different thinking?
* View the problem as a color -- what does it make you think of, how does the color offer a new perspective?
* Brainstorm using the phrases, "What if?" "How about?" or "Just consider."
* Use word association to generate ideas.
* Write a headline, poem, obituary, news report or book title that relates to a business issue, event or other need. This forces a new perspective on the situation.

To succeed in business, think unique, valuable, exceptional and exclusive. Think success by focusing on what makes you different and distinct.