How to Become the Best in the World

The relentless rush to be mediocre. That's what my new book, The Dip, is really about. Or, to be a lot more positive about it, it's about avoiding temptation and gravity and becoming the best in the world.

You may already believe you're the best at what you do. But chances are, you don't.

Chances are, you're settling, getting along, doing the best you can... given the circumstances.

I'm amazed at how quickly people will stand up and defend not just the status quo but the inevitability of it. We've been taught since forever that the world needs joiners and followers, not just leaders. We've been taught that fitting in is far better than standing out, and that good enough is good enough.

Which might have been fine in a company town, but doesn't work so well in a winner-takes-all world. Now, the benefits that accrue to someone who is the best in the world are orders of magnitude greater than the crumbs they save for the average. No matter how hard-working the average may be. I've never met anyone-anyone-who needed to settle for being average.

Best is a slot that's available to everyone, somewhere. I wrote this ChangeThis manifesto for you because, without even meeting you, I'm sure that if you understood what was at stake, you'd quit. Early and often. You'd do whatever was necessary to not get stuck in the Dip, to cease to be mediocre.

People fly across the country to eat dinner in the restaurant they consider the best in the world. HR execs open up their budgets to meet the salary demands of employees they consider the best in the world. Voters wait in line to vote for a candidate that truly excites them, that they believe in, one who is the best in the world. Our culture celebrates superstars. We reward the product or the song or the organization or the employee that is number one. The rewards are heavily skewed, so much so that it's typical for #1 to get ten times the benefit of #10, and a hundred times the benefit of #100.

Welcome to the Short Head

If you've read Chris Anderson's The Long Tail, this isn't news to you. But I don't care about the long tail right now-I want to show you the short head. The short, big, profitable head. That's the juicy share of the market that belongs to the people at the top of the list. People don't have a lot of time and don't want to take a lot of risks. If you've been diagnosed with cancer of the navel, you're not going to mess around by going to a lot of doctors.

You're going to head straight for the "top guy," the person who's ranked the best in the world.

Why screw around if you get only one chance?

When you visit a new town, are you the sort of person who wants to visit a typical restaurant, or do you ask the concierge for the best place?

When you're hiring someone for your team, do you ask your admin to give you the average résumé, or do you ask him to screen out all but the very best qualified people?

With limited time or opportunity to experiment, we intentionally narrow our choices to those at the top. You're not the only person who looks for the best choice. Everyone does. As a result, the rewards for being first are enormous. It's not a linear scale. It's not a matter of getting a littlemore after giving a little more. It's a curve, and a steep one.

The (Real) Reason Number One Matters

The second reason there are such tremendous benefits to being number one is a little more subtle. Being at the top matters because there's room at the top for only a few. Scarcity makes being at the top worth something. There are hundreds of brands of bottled water, and they're all mostly the same. So we don't shop around for bottled water. There is no top for bottled water. Champagne is a different story. Dom Pérignon is at or near the top, so we pay extra for it.

Where does the scarcity come from? It comes from the hurdles that the markets and our society set up. It comes from the fact that most competitors quit long before they've created something that makes it to the top. That's the way it's supposed to be. The system depends
on it.

The Best in the World?

Anyone who is going to hire you, buy from you, recommend you, vote for you, or do what you want them to do is going to wonder if you're the best choice. "Best" as in "best for them, right now, based on what they believe and what they know." And "in the world" as in "their world, the world they have access to." So, if I'm looking for a freelance copy editor, I want the best copy editor in English, who's available, who can find a way to work with me at a price I can afford. That's my "best in the world." If I want a hernia doctor, I want the doctor who is best because she's recommended by my friends or colleagues and because she fits my picture of what a great doctor is. That, and she has to be in my town and have a slot open. So "world" is a pretty flexible term.

The mass market is dying. There is no longer one best song or one best kind of coffee. Now there are a million micromarkets, but each micromarket still has a best. If your micromarket is "organic markets in Tulsa," then that's your world. And being the best in that world is the place to be.

Best is subjective. I (the consumer) get to decide, not you. World is selfish. It's my definition, not yours. It's the world I define, based on my convenience or my preferences. Be the best in my world and you have me, at a premium, right now. The world is getting larger, because I can now look everywhere when I want to find something (or someone). That means that the amount of variety is staggering, and it means I can define my world to be exactly what I have an interest in-and find my preferences anywhere on the planet.

At the same time, the world is getting smaller, because the categories are getting more specialized. I can now find the best gluten-free bialys available by overnight shipping. I can find the best riskmanagement software for my industry, right now, online. I can find the best clothing-optional resort in North America with six clicks of a mouse. So while it's more important than ever to be the best in the world, it's also easier if you pick the right thing and do it all the way. More places to win, and the stakes are higher, too.

So?

It's at this point that the masses rise up as one and start talking about how obvious this all is. "Of course I want to be number one,"............ To find out how and The Big Idea from Seth Godin, Look forward to the next issue of Businessgyan! 

This article is picked up from www.changethis.com Seth Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change. Simply, he changes the way people think about marketing, change and work.

Issue BG85 Apr 08

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