Being different means standing up, standing out, and
leading. Too many people are content to be followers. Do
you dare to be different?
One must plan to be different. You can start to love
being different so that “being different” will become a good
habit. You can make a plan and practice being different.
You do not have to be like everyone else. You can mentally
note each and every time that you are different. You can go
out of your way to do something that makes you stand out
from the crowd.
Be different – be better! You can’t miss with that
attitude. With a new modified success attitude, you will
become successful.
John Quincy Adams said, “If your actions inspire others
to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you
are a leader.”
The inventor of the disposable Gillette razor blade,
King Camp Gillette, was a traveling salesman who sold
bottle stoppers. He got the razor idea one morning in 1895
while shaving with a dull razor. It took 8 years of pure
struggle and frustration to market the first double edge
disposable shaving blade to the public. He had to find the
right combination of metal alloy and tempering.
He also had to find the financial backing needed. In the
process, he experienced tremendous ridicule and failure. It
was almost too much to bear.
In 1903 the first Gillette blade and razor were sold to
the public, and since then more than 100 billion Gillette
blades have been sold.
“I didn’t know enough to quit,” the inventor once said.
“I was a dreamer who believed in the gold at the foot of the
rainbow. I dared to go where wise ones feared to tread.”
Gillette had absolutely no experience in inventing, in
engineering, or in working different forms of metals and
alloys.
He had not the slightest idea of what he would encounter.
But he had an idea, a dream, an inspiration and a belief that
it could be done and, despite all the obstacles, he achieved
his goal.
Don’t you think there were more experienced and
knowledgeable experts, engineers, and inventors than Mr.
Gillette who could have invented this fantastic razor? No
doubt there were thousands of people who had the potential
to invent a new and better razor. What held them back?
Apparently no one else had the foresight, imagination,
or the burning desire to replace the antiquated shaving
instrument that everyone accepted as sufficient. Others
couldn’t visualize a piece of metal as thin as paper, yet
strong enough to slice through tough whiskers.
At times, your common sense will interfere with your
creative imagination. Your common sense will tell you all
the reasons you cannot do something and all those reasons
are likely true. But then you have to stop to realize your
brain has something greater than common sense.
We are each born with creative imagination. Successful
people are the ones who have learned how to apply their
creative imagination in order to achieve greater goals.
Being successful can mean being more imaginative, not
necessarily being smarter than someone else.
If your common sense says no, that’s the time to test
your options. It’s your creative imagination that has the
ability to overcome every it-can’t-be-done attitude and
common sense worry.
Consider how much any inventor has had to endure
ridicule during the development stage of the invention. The
criticism and the negativity from others could easily have
defeated all the major inventors. Imagine the world without
all the major inventions if the inventors had given up. Too
many people give up on their ideas, telling themselves, “I
can’t do it.” That amounts to accepting defeat before they
have even tried.
Thomas Edison was laughed at when he tried to sell
the idea of the light bulb. People did not understand the
concept; they were happy using their gaslights. His skeptics
kept asking, “How does Edison expect to light anything
without using a flame or a fire of some kind?”
Skeptics have a difficult time in accepting change.
Thomas Edison is a great example of someone who did
not give up. From his creative imagination and hard work,
we have his legacy of the electric light bulb, motion pictures,
the telephone transmitter, the stock ticker, the phonograph
and the electric pen for the mimeograph.
Thank God, Thomas Alva Edison did not let his skeptics,
his common sense, and all his failed experiments defeat
him. I wonder how many times his common sense started
telling him, “It can’t be done.” Success means you have to
be willing to risk not listening to your common sense.
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone,
had a difficult time convincing others the telephone invention
would work. People accepted the telegraph as the means
of communication because that already worked and people
follow what works. Bell used his creative imagination to
go to the next step: imagining that people could speak into
a piece of metal and their voices would travel across the
country over a wire in a split second.
To use your creative imagination will require research
and hard work.
You can succeed in your ultimate goal if you have the
conviction to persevere through all the negative attitudes
and through your failed attempts.
Your goal may not come easily, but success usually
comes to those who persist, those who choose to be
different.

The spirit, the will to win,
and the will to excel are the
things that endure. These qualities
are so much more important than
the events that occur.
–Vince Lombardi
Football Coach
(1913-1970)

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