By Doug Fouts, Managing Director at Xapsis Integrated Marketing
"We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against."
We recently lost a true artistic genius of the literary world, Ray Bradbury, who wrote one of my all-time favorite novels, Fahrenheit 451. It’s a book I read once a year without fail, and I enjoy it every single time. Written in 1953, Bradbury wrote of a future that very much resembles our present world, both in gadgetry and technology, as well I am sorry to say in conventional wisdom in many corners of our country. The quote above, from the book, illustrates this to me starkly.
There is a current line of thought that says competition is bad, everyone receives a trophy not just the victors, giving students grades are a thing of the past, don’t recognize excellence and raise it above the crowd, lest we make anyone feel bad about themselves. It’s a philosophy that has been decried by everyone from Ayn Rand in her magnum opus Atlas Shrugged, to the character of Dash in the Pixar movie The Incredibles when his mother tells him “Everyone’s special”, he responds, “Which is another way of saying no one is.” It’s an idea that has, on the opposite end of the spectrum, supporters like prolific author Alfie Kohn, of who it is said of on his own website bio, “His criticisms of competition and rewards have helped to shape the thinking of educators -- as well as parents and managers -- across the country and abroad.”
The problem that I see is that Bradbury wrote the quote above in his novel as part of the overall cautionary tale perspective of the central story. In other words, Bradbury saw this philosophy as a NEGATIVE outcome, a system which the main character, Guy Montag, eventually sees the evil of, fights against and ultimately liberates himself from. He’s not championing this philosophy in the quote above, he is showing it to the reader in the hopes that they will be aghast at the notion and not let the world become what he foresaw in the book itself! Competition, the pursuit of excellence, rewarding those who achieve scale the heights and set themselves apart are not inherently bad concepts. On the contrary, these things touch something in humanity’s primal core and drive them to deeper thinking, more creative solutions, and the will to keep practicing, keep training and keep struggling to excel and obtain their chosen and focused goals. Having the desire to set yourself apart is not a negative thing; it is actually THE thing that has produced much of the breakthroughs in every field you can think of, from engineering, to arts, to medicine, to industry!
So my first question to you today is, “What is it about you that sets you apart?” What is it about your business that makes you rise above the competition? What is it about what you contribute to the world that pulls you above the noise of competitors and the morass of mediocrity?
My second question is, “Do you want to be a mountain that people judge themselves against?” Do you want to excel at something, whether business or personally, that makes you the gold standard by which men and women judge the idea of true success and excellence? I hope so!
Xapsis is a marketing firm that is devoted to the pursuit of helping our clients find the answer to these two questions for their businesses, helping them first identify, then express, then broadcast to the world what makes their companies the best in their field, marketplace or industry. Most days it is thrilling and exciting work, especially when you hit the nail on the head and the light bulbs all pop on over the heads of everyone in the room. There is no better feeling than when you know you’ve hit the mark and put it all together from the message, to the look, to the functionality to the strategy, all working in unison to set your company apart!
Don’t settle for less, don’t accept any call that asks you to fade into the background or blend in to the scenery. Don’t do it professionally, don’t do it personally, no matter what voices around you are telling you that it is better for everyone that way.
Don’t fear competition, even if you lose in the effort, because in that there is a learning process that hones your efforts to become better and stronger in only you have the will and drive to do so! (Another lesson handled deftly by Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451)
I hope this post is food for thought at the least, and a prodding challenge at the best, to everyone who may take the time to read it. I end with one final quote from Ray Bradbury, you already know the book, and it’s one that sums up what will hopefully be said of every one of us at the end of the journey if we have chosen to embrace the idea of becoming the mountain we know we can be. It perfectly describes what happened just days ago when Mr. Bradbury himself, who certainly set himself apart in his work and life, left us for good.
“The world was bankrupted of ten million fine actions the night he passed on.”
