The Purple Cow

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a fan of Seth Godin and in particular his concept of The Purple Cow.  I’ve recently found that he wrote a good summary of the book in the Guardian which you can see here, or if you want my really short summary read on…

The Purple Cow: You’re either boring or you stand out. You’re either invisible or remarkable.  If you want to grow, you have to be remarkable like the Purple Cow.

And for a slightly longer summary, here are the ten key steps to being a purple cow:

1. Understand the urgency of the situation.
2. Remarkable means being remarkable to the reader. Are they going to make a remark about you?
3. Being noticed is not the same as being remarkable.
4. Extremism in the pursuit of remarkability is no sin. Rock stars have groupies because they’re rock stars, not because they’re good looking.
5. Remarkability lies in being he biggest, fastest, slowest, richest, easiest, most difficult.
6. Most people don’t appreciate your efforts to be remarkable. Your goal is to please those that will spread the word.
7. If it’s the accepted wisdom, it’s not remarkable. You have to do something first and best.
8. It’s not really as frightening as it seems.
9. A few people insanely focused on what you do is far far better than thousands of people who are mildly interested.
10. What’s fashionable soon becomes unfashionable. You have to reinvest and reinvent.

Be remarkable. Go all the way to the edge. Not in a big thing, perhaps, but in a little one. Find some area where you have a tiny bit of authority and run with it.

Be remarkable – Now! If you don’t start tomorrow, you’re not really serious. Tomorrow night by midnight or don’t bother. Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Start now!