Description
Why trying to be the best โฆ competing like crazy โฆ makes you mediocreEvery few years a bookโthrough a combination of the authorโs unique voice, storytelling ability, wit, and insightโsimply breaks the mold. Bill Brysonโs A Walk in the Woods is one example. Richard Feynmanโs โ Surely Youโre Joking, Mr. Feynman!โ is another.
Now comes Youngme Moonโs Different, a book for โpeople who donโt read business books.โ Actually, itโs more like a personal conversation with a friend who has thought deeply about how the world works โฆ and who gets you to see that world in a completely new light.
If there is one strain of conventional wisdom pervading every company in every industry, itโs the absolute importance of โcompeting like crazy.โ Youngme Moonโs message is simply โGet off this treadmill thatโs taking you nowhere. Going tit for tat and adding features, augmentations, and gimmicks to beat the competition has the perverse result of making you like everyone else.โ Different provides a highly original perspective on what it means to offer something that is meaningfully differentโdifferent in a manner that is both fundamental and comprehensive.
Youngme Moon identifies the outliers, the mavericks, the iconoclastsโthe players who have thoughtfully rejected orthodoxy in favor of an approach that is more adventurous. Some are even โhostile,โ almost daring you to buy what they are selling. The MINI Cooper was launched with fearless โWorried that this car is too small? Look here. Itโs even smaller than you think.โ
These are players that strike a genuine chord with even the most jaded consumers. In fact, almost every success story of the past two decades has been an exception to the rule. Simply go to your computer and compare AOL and Yahoo! with Google. The former pile on feature upon feature to their home pages, while Google is like an austere boutique, dominating a category filled with โextras.โ
Different shows how to succeed in a world where conformity reignsโฆbut exceptions rule. ISBN:9780307460851
