Doing Things Differently

If You’re Going To Do It…

Garth Beyer

I grew up with my dad telling me that if I’m going to do something, I better do it right.

I’ve since expanded on it, and began sharing the view with others.

If you’re going to do something, do it so it exceeds expectations. Do it better than right. Do it in a way the receiver, viewer, client, customer wouldn’t have imagined you to do it.

You can make something right, but you can also make something wrong for all the right reasons.

 

Stay Positive & Take The Chance To Do Things Better, But Differently Too

What It Takes For Ideas To Spread

Garth Beyer

Ideas That Spread

As I’m ironing out speech ideas and book ideas, I’m ruminating on the difficulty of introducing an idea that spreads.

We no longer need a book or a speech or a consultation to tell us how to solve a problem we have. Google and YouTube is there for that. If you’re searching for a “How to,” the Internet is your friend.

But the “Why do” …that might be worthy of print media or a Ted talk or a podcast.

Instead of producing something that shares a solution to someone’s problem, we have the opportunity to share something we are passionate about with someone who might not know they had a problem with their “why,” which, may in turn alter the “how to” they seek.

Our goal, then, ought to be to find those who don’t know they need help and proceed to inspire them with an idea worth spreading.

For a spreadable idea, you few things must fall into place:

1) You must be passionate about an idea that is, at minimum, different from what has been done before. The cue here is often the saying, “We’re doing things just a bit different.” For an idea to spread, there must be both a sense of security (doing things that we know already works) and a little adventure (but doing them a bit differently).

2) The audience must understand the basics of your idea, which you typically don’t need to go in depth about. Recall, Google has you covered as well as bookstores when it comes to the basics. Ideas that spread aren’t sent out to beginners, they are given as a gift to those who 1) understand the foundation of your idea already and 2) trust you. Which leads us to the third and final variable.

3) Ideas spread as quickly as the path established for them allows; that is, the relationship you have, the connection you have built determines the speed at which an idea can spread. The stronger the relationship, the easier it is for an idea to go viral. This goes further than just making a connection between you and someone in your target audience; it requires you to connect your target audience to each other, ultimately creating multiple pathways for the idea to spread.

Lastly, ideas don’t spread simply by throwing them out there. Ideas spread when they are remarkable, as in, worth making remarks about, worth talking to others about, worth sharing.

For an idea to resonate, the idea must focus on the part of doing or thinking about things differently.

 

Stay Positive & Go Spread Something Remarkable

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You’ll Make Very Little Impact

You’ll Make Very Little Impact

Garth Beyer

Doing Things Differently

There’s certainly a chance you’ll make a very large impact, but the chances are slim.

Slim indeed.

But this should be a motivator more than a turn off.

With nearly 100,000 public schools in America, as a teacher, you have an opportunity to do something different without negatively affecting the system of the other 99,999 schools.

With 500,000+ businesses starting up each year, you, as a now business owner, have an opportunity to do something different with your business without it negatively affecting the trend of others starting their businesses.

With 290,000+ books getting published each year, as a writer you have an opportunity to do something different without breaking down the publishing industry.

There are so many people doing what you are doing that you now have permission to do what you do in a drastically different way. And don’t forget, no one is paying much attention anyway.

I wrote you’re unlikely to make a huge impact, a real dent in the universe. It makes me wonder if knowing that, are you willing to give up your attempt? If you may only influence one other person through your trial of something new, something different, do you believe there’s no point in following through with it then?

Would you rather an aspiring teacher quit his pursuit and work at a gas station instead because he knows he may only impact one or two students in five years of teaching?

This is a call to experiment. And once you experiment, experiment more. Regardless of whether you’re making a large or small impact doing so.

If it’s any consolation, your chances of making a huge positive impact are far greater than making a huge negative one. It’s easier to redirect a current than it is to get others to stop all currents completely because of some pesky seaweed buildup.

 

Stay Positive & The Only Negative Impact You Can Make Is Not Making An Impact At All

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