GarthBox

Through the life of your business you’re sure to be prodded toward differentiating yourself from your competitors if you haven’t already been.

Most commonly this comes from price. Your competitor lowers their prices so you retaliate by lowering yours. You enter a race to the bottom.

If you’re going to differentiate yourself, don’t do so with the sole purpose of being at an advantage over your competitor.

What’s important is what you do to give your customer a substantial advantage.

You must be asking yourself, “What can I give to my customer that my competitors can’t.”

You don’t create a differentiator by being different from your competitor, you create a differentiator that matters by giving more to the customer than any competitor can.

 

Stay Positive & Customer First And Always

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Insecurity.

When we assign ourselves an important task, we immediately become insecure about the work. After all, right now we have total control of the situation we’re in. Once we start going down the unfamiliar path of a potentially remarkable idea, we exchange control for instinct.

Laziness is easy because we remain in 100 percent control, but creativity doesn’t show up when we stand still.

 

Stay Positive & Notice The Fear And Dance With It, But Don’t Stop Doing The Important Work

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There’s no such thing as accidental creativity.

You may think two items were accidentally combined to create something remarkable. You may think that an idea came out of no where while you were in the shower. You may think your recent success was luck or good timing.

It wasn’t.

Creativity is earned, and it’s not always apparent how (thus our fascination and curiosity around the roots of creativity).

What is clear is there needs to be forward movement, momentum if you will, in order for creativity to appear. Sure, sometimes it arrives in a moment of respite, but you worked to deserve that respite (and that creative “accident” too).

 

Stay Positive & Build Your Momentum And Creativity Will Appear

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When you look at all the little things you can change to be a better you, it actually looks big.

Better to ask yourself today (right now?), what is the one little thing that I can change?

Too often we settle for listing all the little things and changing none of them.

Why?

 

Stay Positive & Find The Little Thing, Change It, Then Find Another

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Situations can easily constrict your creativity.

“We’re not going to make it through third quarter” is a preventing mindset that puts a stop to “What can we do differently to succeed past third quarter?”

Instead, better to say, “Given our current situation and how we do things, we won’t make it through third quarter.”

That opens up a dialogue, it invites creativity, it provides some breathing room for people to alter their previously held beliefs of standing still to begin moving forward in a new direction, toward a new situation.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Stand Still

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The smartest thing one can do after reading a book is to act on the newly obtained information.

Too often we read books that are meant to propel us in our career, in our love life, in our world, but don’t because we remain inactive after we close the cover.

While we have every intention of putting an authors advice to work, we more often think about the next book we’re going to read and all the things we have yet to do today.

Better, I believe, to take 5 minutes and apply the knowledge you just spent time acquiring (before it is forgotten).

It’s not to say your action needs to be taken at work. It can be as simple as sharing the knowledge in a blog post or calling a friend who you think the knowledge can help.

You can’t call yourself a professional if you don’t do the reading.

You can’t call yourself an artist if you don’t find an application for what you have read.

 

Stay Positive & You’re An Artist, Right?

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