CHAPTER 19
DON’T BE EVERYBODY ELSE.
Larry Ellison, founder of oracle is credited with this statement; if you do everything that everyone else does in business, you are going to lose. The only way to really be ahead is to be different.
Our world is filled with everybody else doing what is common to everybody else. Everybody is the crowd thinking system, a general school of thought that kills individualism. It steers the individual away from discovering and applying his innate potentials and moves him to hiding under the shadows of the belief of the group to which he belongs. It blinds the eyes to the huge capacity embedded in each person by focusing more on the strength of the collective whole. The power of “everybody” is it’s swaying capacity that keeps you in its path even when you can do more than the capacity that it celebrates.
It is a general illusion to think the way everyone does. Many a child faces this challenge everyday amongst their peers. At a particular age, society expects some certain attributes from a child. As the child grows, he struggles to meet up with the demands of society. That consciousness of being what society demands envelopes the child that he begins to look up to society for his sense of direction, one the society finds magnanimous to supply, however society supplies a bias direction.
Societal everybody principles are skewed towards the partial development of each constituent person. It does not allow for the full actualization or pursuance of independent potentials. Everybody works towards the pursuance of generalized goals and you only need to apply a little of you to be useful.
Everybody may deride you for your seeming incapacity to achieve a task considered to be within the privy of everyone. They expect that you must live up to their own billing even if you have your own bills to pay. They poke you at every turn because they take position as the judge for your every action. Even when you are absolutely capable to take your independent step, everybody thinks you are breaking a coded rule.
Those who stand out are those who choose to quip from the claws of everybody. Yes, we need somebody and a few persons but we can’t afford to need everybody. The difference each person has to make cannot be felt if each person tows in the line of the crowd. The distortion that characterizes the bandwagon effect of everybody is its huge limitation it places. It is like a heavy load, a huge burden that has to be borne. You can’t go far with the type of speed you’d like to when you are carrying a big load on that back.
Those who go far, drop the burden of everybody, ease themselves off and set sail towards a different definite path. Everyone may be watching news by 9pm; they are studying their books. Everyone may be snoring at 1am; they are awake researching. Everyone may be at the weekly Friday night party; they are busy on a business model. Everyone may be spending their financial resources on wears and cars; they are sending them to the orphanages.
Taking the decision to pull off from the crowd isn’t always a celebrated action. But for those who can dare, it’s the most worthwhile action. You must be ready to defend your action over and over again. The truth is, no one in the crowd will consider your action as right. You will be considered selfish, self-centered and not right thinking. In any case, it’s the right action for you.
The path away from everybody will be lonely especially at the initial period of your jumping off the crowd bandwagon. You will have to battle it out all by yourself to fruition before any chance of getting any support comes. People only get to support those who act against the crowd only after they have proved that their journey against the crowd was indeed a worthwhile venture.
Only those who think away from everybody do phenomenal acts. You can only affect the crowd by being against it. You can’t be celebrated in the crowd. As much as everybody is concerned, your place is to watch along. Only those who choose to watch away from everybody get the chance to also have everybody watching them.
Those we find on the big stages of life; our musical icons, actors, authors, laureates, MCs etc., are the ones who have taken the decision to go against the thoughts of everybody.
If you truly want to be celebrated, reconsider your direction. You just will have to tread a different path from everybody.