9 Powerful Thoughts on ‘How To Be Irreplaceable’ [Part 5]
9 Powerful Thoughts ‘How to Be Irreplaceable’ [Part 4]
October 5, 20159 Powerful Thoughts ‘How To Be Irreplaceable’ [Part 6]
October 16, 2015“Common Fame. I trust a good deal to common fame, as we all must. If a man has good corn, or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods”.
“If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon or make a better mouse trap than his neighbors, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door”.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
That is a very interesting quote, the second one. Curiously, note that Ralph Waldo Emerson is talking about “The WORLD”, making a beaten path to find where the solution is. But really, did he mean the whole world? Come to think of it:
- Can the whole world read to need a better book? No!
- Does the whole world fancy a better preacher with a better sermon? Probably.
- Does the whole world need to catch mice? No!
However…
People who need a better book are from all over the world,
people who need a better sermon and preacher can be found all over the world,
And most definitely, people who need a better mouse trap can be found all over the world.
From amongst these, there are those that will travel across oceans to get that ‘better’ that they need. There are those that will buy the most expensive technology to access on demand a better service or product.
A Quick Recap…
The person who makes people to shift in order to get what is better is the one who is irreplaceable. Today, however, we are reversing the trend. We shall see how important it is that you look for these people that can benefit from your unique ability.
In the previous posts, we have already covered the following aspects of being irreplaceable:
How To Be Irreplaceable: 4. Know Who Your Audience is
This is the very first step towards impacting the world with your ‘irrreplaceability’. It makes no use for you to be irreplaceable if you are not helping anyone with your difference. Beauty comes alive when we use our unique ‘difference’ to help someone else solve a problem.
It makes no use for you to be irreplaceable if you are not helping anyone with your difference. Beauty comes alive when we use our difference to help someone else solve their problems. LS
Experts and Geniuses
Being an expert is simply a matter of perception. Let me illustrate. If I use my unique ‘difference’ to serve someone and they are totally blessed by it, they would perceive me to be a genius in that niche/genre. The sweet spot however is when I know exactly who such people that my difference serves are. Where they live. What are their biggest challenges. How they dream of alleviating the challenge. If I am going to be irreplaceable, it is this group of people that will feel the impact of my difference in solving their problems that will deem me to be irreplaceable.
Value Creation and Problem Solving
If however I have no idea who my audience is, I can as well forget about studying my difference as already advocated for in an earlier post. If my unique difference is say, Speaking, then I need to know who is going to benefit from it. In fact I do need to clearly know not just who is going to benefit from it, but I do need to know who wants to benefit from it.
If my unique difference is say, Speaking, then I need to know who is going to benefit from it. In fact I do need to clearly know not just who is going to benefit from it, but I do need to know who wants to benefit from it.
Therefore, the key word here is Problem Solving. In other words we can also call it Value Creation. Now, you are not Jesus Christ, so you cannot set out to solve the problems of the entire world. That way, you risk falling into a trap of being irrelevant. However, in order to be irreplaceable, it is imperative that we find a specific group of people that have a problem that requires our difference to solve it.
We therefore need to focus on just that bunch primarily and provide them impeccable service. The service we are providing to them is not necessarily motivated by what we are getting back from them, but our joy is to see their problems being solved easily, early, and expertly.
Love Never Fails
What gels the the two things: My unique ability and my audience is nothing but love. Love is the greatest commandment, the greatest rule that you cannot go wrong with. Loving my unique difference helps me hone it even more to levels of irreplaceability. Loving my audience infuses more passion in solving their problems with my refined unique ability.
The question that we need to answer today is this:
Who benefits from my unique ability?
