Survival of the Fittest: The Being Remarkable Theory

So I happened to come across an article that talked about Seth Godin, and since I didn’t know who he was, I had to look him up on Wikipedia. While reading his biography, there was one line that caught my attention “Finally, Godin asserts that the only way to spread the word about an idea is for that idea to earn the buzz by being remarkable” and it forced me to stop and think. There must have been an era when clout, financial, political or otherwise, decided who sold what and to whom. Then survival meant having buying power, not having to necessarily be remarkable. The arrival of the information era has changed all that. Today, the survival of the fittest is decided by what you are, not who you are. I remember as a kid my mother telling me, whatever you do, do it well. Maybe, that adage needs to go a step further in today’s world. To survive in the fast-paced world of commerce today, a business cannot just do things well, it has to do them remarkably well. Here is why.

It is because information is available at demand and people are incessantly talking, commenting and speaking out. Reputations are being built and torn down in forums and blogs across the internet. If you do not believe me, do a Google search on your business name and see for yourself, and if you do not find anything, well, you are not doing anything remarkable yet. All this talk is a little stale as the being remarkable theory is neither original nor brand new. What’s new is that the business community is still coming to grips with this bare-all, be good for goodness sake style of doing business. You still find people cutting corners, providing unremarkable customer service and selling bad products but not for long, because the smart businesses have figured it out and they will be the ones who survive.

Let me know if there is a business in your community that is doing something remarkably well.