How to Be a Purple Cow in 2020

Cover Image: The Purple Cow concept was created by Seth Godin in his book of the same name. Image Source

Two mental models to help you become remarkable in a world of average

As I reflected back on 2019, I realized that I wasn’t remarkable. My businesses didn’t do anything that really stood out from the crowd. I did good stuff — and that’s why I got good results — but, if you’re like me, you don’t want good results, you want remarkable results!

I know I can help people in more exceptional ways. In 2020, that’s exactly what I’m going to do!

If you’re looking to become remarkable in 2020, follow this reflection I have made, learn from it, apply it, and come up with your own ideas.

*See Appendix A for how to apply Janus skills
**See Appendix B for how I plan to be remarkable in 2020

General Concepts of Remarkableness

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Less than 1% of the population is truly remarkable. Being remarkable isn’t easy, but it is doable. Here are some general traits of remarkable people:

  • They are persistent (for real)

  • They are relentless

  • They don’t follow the herd

  • They work better than others

  • They surround themselves with the right people

  • They say “yes” to the right opportunities and “no” to everything else

Given the above, when you work on any projects (where you want to be remarkable), ask yourself these questions:

  • Am I giving up too early?

  • Am I being constant?

  • Am I doing like my competitors?

  • How am I working better than others? How am I not working better than others?

  • Who do I surround myself with? Are they helping me with my ambitious goals?

  • What great opportunities am I saying “yes” to?

  • What bad opportunities am I saying “yes” to?

  • What could I say “no” to?

Remarkable people ask themselves these questions regularly. The questions themselves may not be remarkable, but your answers to them can be!

Here are two mental models to help you find those remarkable answers.

1. The Outlier Algorithm

What are the top 0.01% of the people doing? In a way, that’s the definition of being remarkable.

If 99.99% of people have a weekly newsletter where they link to their online content, what can you do to be more special — more remarkable? Think outside the box. Changing from weekly to daily isn’t remarkable.

99.99% of the people who write about productivity write about time management or habit building. What’s a remarkable productivity article then? Energy management maybe? Talking about anti-productivity? Something else?

Similar to the above example, 99.99% of the people use a cover image and the rest is text or images from Unsplash or Pexels. Remarkable people like John P. Weiss, Darius Foroux, and Scott H. Young draw their own images. Remarkable people like Michael Simmons create graphs and infographics.

Here are a few ways you can apply the Outlier Algorithm mental model (content source: Mental Models Club):

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2. Janus Skills

The Janus mental model is about exploring polarity between two concepts.

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.”― Walt Whitman

Few people can do that. In a way, the Janus mental model is a more advanced Outlier Algorithm mental model. To get your mind going, here are a few examples of polar skills based on the concept:

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The idea is that to become truly remarkable, you must be able to master (or become very good in) the skills on each side of the spectrum. Imagine someone who can freely balance between right-brain skills and left-brain skills? Imagine someone who can be both emotional and rational at the same time?

Is that doable? Certainly! Is it easy? No, but that’s exactly why it’s remarkable!

Michael Simmons compiled an incredible list of ways to become better at Janus skills in his Mental Models Club. It’s a fantastic resource (at a good price). Below are my favourite methods I learned from him:

Step 1: Know yourself

Most people don’t self-reflect enough to know who they truly are. Try the following methods to raise your self-awareness:

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Step 2: Know the “other”

Most people barely scratch the surface when trying to understand others. To be remarkable you have to use remarkable methods. Try the following:

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Step 3: Integrate the two

This is probably the hardest part and where more creativity is required. UXMastery.com wrote a great article on how to do it using polarity mapping — check it out.

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Conclusion

Whether you use the outlier algorithm mental model, the Janus mental model, or something else, one thing is for sure: You can’t be extraordinary if you keep doing what other people are doing. That requires a lot more thinking and a lot more action.

For this article, I decided to include visual elements to help you assimilate the concepts you read about. In Appendix A, I’m including a printable version of how to use the Janus mental model. In Appendix B, I’m including how I plan to be remarkable this year — I didn’t want this to just be another articles where the author doesn’t apply what they preach. I’m hoping this makes this article stand out more than the rest.

So, this week, try to do the exercise I did in Appendix B. Brainstorm a list of how you’ll be remarkable in 2020. Use the above mental models to guide you. Find a way to guarantee you’ll stay accountable and take consistent action for the rest of the year. This is how you’ll be remarkable!

You can do this!

Appendix A. Developing Janus skills (all-in-one graphic)

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Appendix B. Examples of ways I plan to be remarkable in 2020

Below is a list of things I’ll do differently in 2020, which I hope will make me more remarkable: