Following the rules doesn’t work in business.
Even if you’re doing it right, you’re doing it like everybody else.
Which is wrong.
At the extremes is where you find your edge — your tactical business advantage.
The reason why extreme behavior is so powerful for companies is really a simple psychological concept.
Being radical is memorable.
Anything other than extreme behavior just blends in. If it looks like everything else, you assume that it is just like everything else.
That’s just how your brain is wired.
A deer looking at a hunter in camouflage doesn’t imagine that the hunter is a tree. The deer just ignores the hunter because it looks so much like the tree.
And since a tree is completely safe, the deer’s brain does not trigger any alerts — possibly to the peril of the deer’s life.
It’s the exact same way your customers view you in comparison to your competitors.
Sure, you think you sound different. You think that no one else is doing what you are doing.
But to customers it just sounds like more of the same thing.
To them it is confusing. It’s frustrating.
And it’s costing you business growth.
A little extreme behavior could help you change that customer apathy.
There are several extreme behaviors that are effective in attracting new customers.
Some companies apply cutting-edge analysis and complex strategic testing to analyze a market and determine the best plan of action. Other businesses use captivating advertising and outrageous marketing to get customers to remember a captivating tagline.
But there are three key extreme behaviors that you can master that together produce tremendous business growth.
- Extreme Effort — It’s easy to excuse away the simplest path to success — putting in more effort than anyone else. Our “working smarter” business philosophy is just willful suspension of disbelief. It’s a ruse. Since the beginning of caveman times, every amazing feat of human accomplishment has always only come from the massive efforts of unwavering mortals. It’s always been about working harder. And the idea of working smarter is just a distraction. To have a chance at outrageous business growth, you have to plan to work longer and harder than you ever imagined. That’s just what it takes.
- Extreme Differentiation — You can’t lead the marketplace when you aren’t any different than anyone else. You can’t blend in and stand out at the same time. You have to make the uncomfortable choice to stand for something — to stand up for something. Make no mistake, being different takes emotional strength. Your entire life you’ve been told to “not make a scene” and “why can’t you be like the other kids” and “don’t do anything to embarrass us”. But that won’t make you successful — just a loser like the rest of the crowd. Love yourself. Love your purpose. Outrageous growth demands that you’re a “lot-a-bit” different than anyone else.
- Extreme Kindness — Customer’s don’t care how much you know. They want to know how much you care. They don’t want you to manipulate them. They just want to be loved. And that’s not something that you are naturally good at. You’re good at being nice to people that are nice to you. You’re a natural at investing in people who can pay you back even more down the road. But outrageous business growth demands selflessness. It means sometimes you get stepped on. It means that people hurt you. But when you love others and help them solve the pain that moves them deeply, you position yourself for opportunity that you could never have imagined earlier.
You can’t play it safe.
That won’t get you anywhere except exactly where you are right now.
You have to make a violent attempt at changing things.
You have to live extreme.
Everyone won’t be your friend. You might not win every award.
But you’ll be amazing…
And that’s pretty much what you wanted in the first place, right?
