Some products are ordinary, while other products are extraordinary. If you really want to stand out in today’s world, you have to be a purple cow. You can no longer afford to be a brown cow. Let me explain.
Yesterday I was finishing Seth Godin’s bestseller book — Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable–Includes new bonus chapter
Right after the earthquake I immediately got on Twitter, to verify if my senses had been correct. Twitter instantly verified there was an earthquake.
For some reason or another, I landed on Seth’s blog, and sure enough he had already made a post about the earthquake, only several minutes later! Is this a dedicated writer or what?
What Seth calls a Purple Cow is an idea or routine that separates us from the herd mentality. This means that we must find a niche in the business world that either no other company is doing, or, we do it better, more efficient, and hopefully cheaper. Although cheaper is not always better.
Originality seems to be lacking in today’s marketplace. The mistake that entrepreneurs tend to make is to copy another business model, or product. In reality, this is the worse thing we could possibly do. And sometimes being popular is boring.
In order to be a “Purple Cow”, we must go out of our way to make our product stand out. Why? Because, as consumers, we already have most of what we need. We’re more demanding than ever; we’re harder to please than ever. We don’t want ordinary things. We want something remarkable. And we want it now!
The problem with the “Purple Cow”? Seth says it’s fear. Fear of standing out in the crowd. Because if we stand out too far, we stand the risk of criticism. Even though the rewards are much greater if we do eventually succeed, few dare to take this route. Nevertheless, being safe is risky. Why? Because you’ll be invisible. If you’re invisible, you won’t be marketable.
If you want to become wildly successful you must be a Purple Cow
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