How do you stand out in the crowd?

How do you get heard among the myriad talking heads?

How do you compete in this challenging economy?

The answer is: You don’t.

You don’t need to compete. There is no competition.

Years ago, I had the privilege of studying with the late great adventure photographer Galen Rowell.  Late one afternoon, the dozen of us in the class set our tripods up side by side and, as the golden light faded across the Berkley Hills, our shutters clicked. We burned through countless rolls of film.

Now, one might predict that the photographs, made of this same vista, in the same place, with the cameras all pointed in the same direction, all at the same time, would be, well, … the same. But if you were to predict that, you would be wrong!

The twelve photographers came out with twelve very different sets of images.

Sure there was some similarities. But each of us had a different eye, a different view, a different interpretation, a different perspective.

And so it is in all our lives.

Each of us has unique gifts and talents; each of us has a way of seeing the world that is all our own; each of us has our own way of interpreting what we see; and each of us serves in a way that no one else can serve.

The problem is this: we lose sight of our own uniqueness. We get caught up in the noise of the marketplace.  We become enmeshed in the fray.  We want desperately to be picked, chosen, hired, retained.  And so, paradoxically, we try to blend in order to compete; we become vanilla; and in the process we become invisible.

As I coach and strategize with folks who are out in the marketplace, I see them trying on veneers; endeavoring, without success, to dance to others’ tunes.

There is something about our essential selves, I think, that scares us. Perhaps we fear that we will be found out, found wanting; found unusual or strange; that we will be judged unworthy – because we fail to conform, because we fail to fit in.

I remember struggling with this fear as a young trial attorney. I was told that, really, the only way to get new business was to play golf. I tried valiantly to play golf. I hated it. And I sucked. As the years went by, I realized that my clients came to me, not through golf, which I abandoned with trepidation, but through the activities that I truly loved: mountaineering, climbing, hiking, sailing, outdoor adventure. The golfers had their clients; I had mine.

My own coach Tama Kieves reminds me that when we are true to ourselves, our people will find us. Our customers will find us. The right opportunities will come to us.

There are a bizillion accountants, financial planners, physicians, network marketers, lawyers and life coaches. There is only one of you.

You can never compete on price. You can never out-Walmart Walmart. There is only one important point of difference among all the competition: you.

The truth is: there is no one just like you.

Trust who you are.

Give to the world the gifts that only you can give.

No one can compete with that.