Why trying to be the best competing like crazy makes you mediocre

Every few years a bookthrough a combination of the authors unique voice, storytelling ability, wit, and insightsimply breaks the mold. Bill Brysons A Walk in the Woods is one example. Richard Feynmans Surely Youre Joking, Mr. Feynman! is another.

Now comes Youngme Moons Different, a book for people who dont read business books. Actually, its more like a personal conversation with a friend who has thought deeply about how the world works 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, its the absolute importance of competing like crazy. Youngme Moons message is simply Get off this treadmill thats 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. Different provides a highly original perspective on what it means to offer something that is meaningfully differentdifferent in a manner that is both fundamental and comprehensive.

Youngme Moon identifies the outliers, the mavericks, the iconoclaststhe players who have thoughtfully rejected orthodoxy in favor of an approach that is more adventurous. Some are even hostile, almost daring you to buy what they are selling. The MINI Cooper was launched with fearless abandon: Worried that this car is too small? Look here. Its even smaller than you think.

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 extras.

Different shows how to succeed in a world where conformity reignsbut exceptions rule.