Be an anomaly

If you want to do something no one has done, you have to take the path no one took. Different is not branding. It is the only honest strategy for that goal.November 8, 2020

There is a default life. College. Job. Assignments. Maybe a small business. Marriage. Kids. Real estate. Moments of joy. Moments of sadness. Death. It is not evil. It is gravity. I mapped that life early and rejected it on purpose. If you want a non-default outcome, the default path is the wrong tool. And if you want to do something no one has done, you have to take the path which no one took. That is the whole argument. Being different has a cost. You get less social ease. In return you sometimes see seams other people miss because they are busy staying inside the game. That trade is fine with me. I still catch myself wanting the safety of looking conventional while claiming unconventional goals. That mix is how ambition dies politely. Anomaly is identity for me. Keep it. Protect it. Do not sand it down just because the room gets quieter when you stop explaining yourself. Then prove it with work. Talk about being different is cheap. Shipping is the only proof that matters.