From “Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith
“I wanted to sidestep the perceived limitations and reputations of both ‘time management’ and ‘work/life balance’ genres, which tend to be bland and focus on incremental improvements. The term lifestyle design,” said Ferriss, was intended “to create a category of one where I defined the rules and set the standards. Don’t be better at following the guidelines and constraints that accompany a common label – be different and call yourself such. If the concept or category you create catches a foothold, you’re the first to mindshare. Let the rest of the world that follows be compared to you. Particularly in a world where power is often measured in links, this puts you in pole position.”
Ferriss is correct about a number of issues. We don’t want to join a race where we’re forced to catch up from the very beginning. We’d prefer that everyone start at the same time, from the same position. Instead, you invent your own games all the time, in small ways – like inviting a group of people to your own local place on a Saturday night, where you’re more comfortable and know all the people working there.
By not only playing a new game of your own, but naming it something else, you position yourself at the head of it, and with a little effort, you make yourself the default. Just thing of Google and googling – hard to compete with something when it’s become the Kleenex or Coke of the Internet, isn’t it.?