My Google Homepage RSS feed aggregator has been broken for a couple of days. All I see when I open my customized page are the titles of the posts, but no blog names. I read about 70 blogs and although that's not an unmanageable number, I cannot really remember whose blog is where on the page. That is just perfect to run a little experiment.
I wonder if I can recognize people by what they write about, just scanning the titles to their posts. And lo and behold, with a few rare exceptions, I can. Maybe I cheated a little because I have good memory and remember what people tell me and what I read. Well, maybe it's also because I am so interested in other points of view when I listen. This is the part that relates to developing relationships with other professionals so that they will know you and your abilities to deliver when the time comes.
The question is still worth pondering.
Let's take a look at what would happen from a "sight unseen" angle. If I knew nothing about you and your business, how would you present yourself so that your competitive advantage was crystal clear? What is the one thing that, if you had to choose, you would put forth about you?
You've seen them in television personalities where not only the sound bite, but also the glance will keep you there or make you want to switch channels. You're either the handsome or the funny guy. Well, it does depend also on what nature endows us with, doesn't it?
Which brings me back to our conversation around competitive advantage. A competitive advantage, for example, is looking at things from a different angle and being able to execute complex things. Simple is often hard to do. The analytical in us wants to engage and make the simple complicated.
We have an advantage also when we know what our limits are and have enough resources to draw from in our professional exchanges to be able to partner with others who can complete us, in a matter of speaking.
We might love to be the handsome guy, but our winning strategy is actually being who we are and doing what we do best. What's your competitive advantage?
[Photo of Italian TV personalities taken during the famous San Remo festival]