In business, and in life, people are constantly searching for the sure thing. The guarantee. Everyone wants the guarantee. Because the sure thing protects us from failure. Or so we’d like to believe. But in reality it anchors us to mediocrity.

The safe route, the tried and tested method, the well-worn path, all share something in common. They all lead to the same place. They generate the same boring, stale results. Over and over and over. There is an old saying that goes, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got.”

Garbage in, garbage out so they say in computer programming lingo.

The real chance to shine and be exceptional is to follow the unbeaten path. To forge a new way. To watch where everyone is going, and then go the opposite direction. Because that is where opportunity lies. It lies in the land of uncertainty. It awaits in the unknown.

Change the input, change the outcome.

To achieve the kind of success you desire, you’re going to have to walk a different path. Your path. Yours and yours alone. A path as unique and individual and wonderful and amazing as you are.

Don’t follow the usual. Be unusual. Be you.

Because there is only one of you in the whole world.

To your good fortune!