What it means to be “common”

I spend a lot of time doing research (mostly online) on some very non-interesting things. Now, you can sit there and think:

“here he goes again…just cuz’ he sits in front of a computer 16 hours a day literally, he thinks he’s a scientist or something.”

For example, I can tell you what major Fortune 500 companies are hiring in New York City, who they are hiring, what common skills they want in this potential candidate, and what projects these candidates will be working on starting their first week. Yes! The actual projects! I can tell you why you should buy a DLP and forego the sleekness of a Plasma. I can tell you why certain web sites do not get as much traffic as they expect. Or why nerds are the wave of the future. Maybe I can demonstrate the flaws of certain retailers by showing proof of their lack of cost-efficiency. Or I can take a company like EBay and offer them an entirely new channel for exhaustive cash flow. (But they prefer to pay over a thousand people to think of these ideas all day). I can tell you the hottest markets in technology, and what unfounded idea will become the next Google or Microsoft (though I will save that information for myself). Hell, though all of this is my opinion, it is based on “research.” I am not merely “web surfing.”

But what makes me wrong or right, ideas valid or invalid, approaches favorable or dead-ends?
Answer: Time and Occurrence

Meaning all my prior findings and discoveries have resulted in what I claimed.

Now, I find myself asking why I haven’t taken all this random information and used it towards my advantage. Well, that my friends, is what makes me COMMON. I am just like YOU! You! you!…Most of us are the same. Heck, let’s be honest. 99.9% of us are “common.”

I believe each of you has had a brilliant idea or two in the last few months. But none of you have implemented it. Why? Is it because you are Common? Actually, it’s what makes you common that has led to such a lack of action. It’s the inability to take risks, the fear of straying from the known path, of doing something different, something with no potential immediate benefit, something thought-provoking, requiring too much of you, your time, your mind. Sounds tiring and cumbersome just thinking about it, huh? So why undertake such activity. Why disturb our existence and havings. Who taught us to count what we have, and not what we don’t have. Bullshit! I say that’s common thinking! So throw it out! Shut it down! From now on, reach for what you don’t have, and by God, have fun doing it!

I believe most people live inside a virtual fence. And to make matters worse, and explain the lack of progression in their own lives as well as society, their thoughts are confined to the boundaries of this virtual fence. Yours may be a white fence, mine may be a iron-rod fence. All in all, we are common, because we both have fences. To dismantle these fences can take years, or lifetimes, meaning it never happens. And that is common. And being common means you have developed a “warning track” on the inside of your fence. Why? Because you need a trigger to remind you how afraid you are of talking about crossing this fence. I equate it to a center-fielder using the warning track to identify how far he is from the fence. And what happens when the ball is hit deep into centerfield? One of two things: 1) the commoner, I mean, centerfielder recognizes he is close to the warning track and stops – and waits for the ball to hit the fence and roll back to him. or 2) he feels the dirt of the warning track and takes a leap forward towards the fence in a spectacular feat to catch the ball and save the day.

Think about it. The greatest achievements of our day are accomplished by those who jump AT the fence (or over) rather than away. Take any superstar, leading industrialist, rich businessman, or literary genius, and they can be defined as BOLD, VISIONARY, or more simply put, UNCOMMON. A risk-taker if ever defined. Take Bill Gates, take Shawn Fanning, take Martha Stewart, or Russell Simmons – - – - all people that took something outrageous and made it commonplace. It takes balls! You’ve read about it before, and you’ll read about it again. But time after time, we simply just read about it. We never play the catalyst.

Now let me put this into laymen terms: Take for example, your greatest achievement to date: You – what is your greatest achievement? And what about you on the other side of the monitor? Great! How about you over there chewing gum? Wow! We have three wonderful examples to evaluate. Let’s begin:

Person 1) Jack – I ran the New York City Marathon.
Person 2) Jill – I started my own business selling clown make-up.
Person 3) John – I quit work and joined the Peace Corps.

Jack completed an event that others simply can’t. Why? Because they are not physically fit to do so. Bullshit! Jack probably trained for months or years, lifted weights, did cardio beyond your daily dose, and can now boast about such an accomplishment. Jack liked to run, so he ran. He didn’t bother creating a fence when it came to this. He did not consider the risks. He envisioned it, and then took action. Jack is uncommon in this aspect.

Jill liked to go to the circus. She liked painting. She always thought about how popular clown make-up would be. No one thought it was a good idea. Jill didn’t care. She started her own business and now makes more than you and me combined. And best of all, she’s doing what she likes. Jill is uncommon in this aspect.

John had a great job as a project manager making lots of money. To him it was just a job. He wanted to see the world and help people. So he quit work. He abandoned his source of income and comfort zones. After recently joining the Peace Corps, John is now stationed in Indonesia helping the victims of the Tsunami disaster get back on their feet. What an experience! Jack is uncommon in this aspect.

So back to YOU. Yes – you reading this. I bid you to find an aspect of you that makes you uncommon. Go on. Spend the next few minutes, or today, or this week, or the whole month trying to find what differentiates you from the commoner. What risks/consequences have you faced in the name of leaping towards the fence. What makes you uncommon? Are you a commoner? What are you afraid of?

I will not preach, because then, I am guilty of being a hypocrit. So I will take on this challenge myself. I will find something that makes me uncommon. And in searching for this, should I fail, I will take action and put aside risk and consequence, and eliminate my virtual fences. I will be brilliant, I will be “monster,” I will be uncommon. And if I should get rich or broke during the process, so be it. I will be have fun and be uncommon in doing so.

Short URL: http://www.updatist.com/?p=129

Posted by Charlie P on Mar 15 2005. Filed under Entertainment, Headline, Lists, Live, Play, Sex + Women, Sports, Stories, Style, Travel + Places, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry