When you're cooking something up and only trying the tried and true, you stick to the predictable you've known.

When cooking like that, you measure the exact amounts (every teaspoon, every gram), and there are no surprises when you work according to the recipe's rules.

Most of my executive coachees try to do the same in their business! They do their day-to-day activities, sell their products or services, and try to do better in their field of expertise. Don't do better, be different!

The world's most successful people have one thing in common: they think differently from everyone else. The reality is that being different in itself may not guarantee success, but it's a shockingly great rule of thumb to follow to get the attention you deserve.

Being perceptive is one of the biggest keys to being an entrepreneur or a successful business person. Different people have different pain points with products or services. Be perceptive of your users wants, your competition's pitfalls, and the people who don't like your competition's pain points and capitalize on them.

Dare to be different from your competition!

99% of executives think their business is different from its competitors. Unfortunately, most consumers can't tell the difference between one business's offerings and those of similar ones. Being different makes you irreplaceable to your customers, and being irreplaceable leads to greater loyalty.

And yet, many businesses are afraid to be different because that means taking a risk and being alone. 

Making it more difficult is the fact that when businesses ask for customer feedback, the responses that come back often say, in essence, "Be more like this other company." That's because while customers can tell you how they want you to improve, they can't tell you how to be different. That's something you have to do on your own.

So how do you separate yourself from other businesses like yours? I recommend my coachees the following three ways:

1. Embrace the negative.

Be bold and do something that people may not like. Until today, I am still getting negative reactions from people (competitors, representatives, suppliers and customers) because I do many of my business activities differently (for some strange and new). But many customers, suppliers and colleagues are thrilled with the different business ways. So far, this strategy has been beneficial.

2. Resist the temptation to over-listen to customers.

Asking for feedback, and responding to it, is always valuable. But you can't let your customers drive every aspect of what you do. 

3. Have an idea of how you will be different.

Any idea can be a good one, even the crazy-sounding ones. Unfortunately, most ideas that are deemed crazy are often dismissed. If you want to be different, you need to embrace a culture where any idea can be tried.

So let the sugar hit the fan, make a mess of your perfect plan, and let something adventurous and remarkable break through.

Start rippin' up the recipe; let go of how it has to be and create something unexpectedly perfect.

If your industry is stuffy, be the casual guy. If your industry is casual, be an unwavering professional. The goal is to stand out from the status quo. There are millions of ways to be different. It's relatively easy to come up with ideas. The key is to make sure whatever you do is authentic to you! So be your different self! And since you've been trying to do better anyway, I suspect you're up to that challenge.

So rip up the recipe!

Inspiration source: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile