How to Stand Out in a Competitive World
(4 Minute Read) Your uniqueness is your unfair advantage
👋🏼 I’m Alek, a repeat founder. I’ve built and sold one company so far. I share what I’ve learned from building companies in 5-minute reads every week.
How to Stand Out in a Competitive World
When applying for a job, you’re competing with thousands of applicants for the same role. Many of these applicants have years more experience than you.
They have an unfair advantage.
Founders compete with massive, existing companies. These companies have vast resources and huge teams that they could reallocate whenever they wish.
They have an unfair advantage.
How do you win this competition? How do you ensure you’re not another voice in the crowd?
You have to create your own unfair advantage.
The Foundation of Your Unfair Advantage: Uniqueness
The playing field is leveling. Remote work lets anyone, anywhere, compete for the same jobs. AI makes once-privileged knowledge available to everyone. Anyone, from anywhere, can learn the skills they need to excel.
So, if we’re all equipped with the same tools, how do you stand out?
The only way to differentiate yourself is to lean into what makes you unique. You are the only “you” in this world. No one has your exact skills and life experiences. Skills are quick to learn. Experiences take years to build. So, your unique experiences are how you craft an unfair advantage.
Identify Your Unfair Advantage
You’ve built an unfair advantage. Intentional or not. To identify your unfair advantage, ask yourself:
What unique life experiences have shaped who you are today?
What skills have you honed over the years?
What relationships can you leverage?
Add together your ordinary experiences. Together, they give you extraordinary circumstances.
Apply Your Unfair Advantage: SolidlyAI’s Journey
Let’s take my journey with SolidlyAI as an example. I’m building an AI meeting assistant. There are hundreds of AI meeting assistants. To name a few: Otter.ai, Fireflies.ai, Fathom, Chorus.ai, Rewatch, and Fathom. How is it possible to compete? The only way to compete in this saturated market is to lean into my unfair advantages.
Lean Startup. I don’t have investors or a large team. This might seem like a disadvantage. But what is the "cost" of having a large team and investors? Money. I don’t need to "build in" profit margin to pay salaries and provide an ROI to investors. A lean team lets me offer the lowest prices.
Practical Analytics. I have a background in analytics. Most competitors only provide text summaries. I can lean on my experience to also provide numbers. SolidlyAI can grade meetings and analyze sentiment.
Communication Skills. This newsletter has honed my communication skills. As a result, I can build a clear, concise communication style into the AI summaries.
Consulting and Tech Background. I have a background in both tech and consulting. SolidlyAI is for consulting teams. Why did I focus on consulting? Fewer people will be able to build tech that helps consultants.
No single one of these items is extraordinary on its own. Together, they set SolidlyAI apart.
Build Your Unfair Advantage
But what if you don’t feel like you have an unfair advantage yet? The good news is, your unfair advantage is something you can create. You aren’t born with it—you build it by living a life.
Your life is a journey of accumulating advantages. Every failure teaches you something new. Every success gives you confidence. Every challenge hones your skills. If you have a goal and no unfair advantage, your best bet is to build one. What would the next two years of your life need to look like to build an unfair advantage? Start there.
Application: How to Stand Out in a Competitive World
Everyone has access to the same tools and information. The only thing that sets you apart is “you.” Your experiences create your unfair advantage. We find success when we align our unfair advantages with our goals. So, when you have a goal, design your life around creating your unfair advantage.
If you’re a job seeker, pick roles where your unique experiences give you an edge. Or, create experiences that give you an edge for the role you want.
If you’re a founder, build a company that solves a problem you know well. Or, build experience with the problem you want to solve.
If you don’t feel like you have an unfair advantage yet, that’s okay. Your unfair advantage is something you build over time. You can build it through unintentional experience. You can build it through intentional choice. Take a moment to jot down your goals. Identify your unique experiences. Add them up into an unfair advantage.
#Entrepreneurship #SelfEmployment #Startups #Bootstrapping #Founders #UnfairAdvantage
By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.