Befriend the Virus of Exclusivity
Before I tell you how to exactly befriend the Virus of Exclusivity, I’m going to tell you what’s it all about in the first place.
Quick Example:
Think of say, online marketing. That’s a pretty congested and competitive niche. Thousands of people flock into it to fight for authority, dominance, and of course profits. But out of those people, only a recognizable few managed to stay on top.
Sure, those marketers maybe, the best, or the brightest, or the smartest guys on the face of the earth, but do you think that alone made them the big fishes in the vast ocean? Think about it.
Because honestly, there will always be brighter, smarter, bolder marketers out there. The only problem is that they’ve been excluded, even before they get the chance to make themselves big.
It’s the Virus of Exclusivity working in action.
Remember the lines, “the rich keeps getting richer”, “the famous keeps getting more famous” etcetera? That’s precisely the thing that’s happening. Those who have the existing machinery to operate get more chances for domination.
Call it snow-balling.
Call it momentum.
Call it domination.
The Virus of Exclusivity likes to keep resources, power, authority etc. limited to a small group (e.g. the richest nations have excessive wealth and the poor nations have really scarce budgets).
Why is that so? Because…
• It makes things easier to operate (the nucleus of a cell is small but it’s the most vital)
• It makes recognition a lot better (no one’s really popular if everyone is popular)
• It makes manipulation work (someone always needs the best possible advice)
• It centralizes action (the President is the leader. S/He commands. We follow)
How to Exactly Befriend the Virus of Exclusivity
It’s the biggest challenge into making the transition from being a follower to being the one that is followed. The odds are, the Virus of Exclusivity is always working against you. Remember, it’s main job is to keep the good things to a small number of people. That’s how the whole system practically works.
The trick? If you can’t beat it… befriend it. That’s the simple concept that I’ve learned.
There are three sure ways I know that could make you befriend the Virus of Exclusivity.
1. Be the first. The concept of exclusivity always starts with one single person initiating (or founding) the whole thing. You can’t be excluded if you’re the first to do it. Of course, if you’re currently competing in an over-crowded niche, the most likely method is to create a point of difference from others. Example, think of the guy who first created podcast and broke free from the traditional ‘writing to blog’ method.
2. Be the best. There’s a grey area of course. How do we exactly define being ‘the best’? To start with, it’s easier to refer to it as to your age of experience. How long have you been doing it? Being a consultant for 5 years means a lot to just being a consultant for a year. The second easy criterion is to brag about your ‘worthy’ achievements. What have you done that’s worth the accolades? If you can’t win by age of experience, win by achievements. It speaks stronger than any length of time.
3. Be popular. It doesn’t matter if you know it all. What matters is if a lot of people actually know that you know it all. Confusing but I hope you get the point. The same thing that it matters more to share your knowledge as to just keep it to yourself.
If you want to succeed, then let people know you are capable of doing it in the first place.
Personal Relfection
If you’re still not successful to this date, you might have wondered, what’s the thing standing between me and that coveted success (arguable arbitrary)? I tried to reflect on that basic question and came up with an answer – I called it the virus of exclusivity.
Everytime A-Listers of your niche gather together for one bang project, or for example whenever you try to reach up to a level but can’t, there’s a force of exclusion that always wants to keep you (and everyone else for that matter) at bay. That’s because power ony works if not everyone has it.
The point of this is tha either you have to make your own power (be the first) or step up on your game.