I read an email the other day from a fellow marketer about the cheese standing alone. If you're not familiar with The Farmer In The Dell, it's a children's song about people and animals on a farm, but in the end the cheese always stands alone. Sure it's silly, but my marketing friend made a good point about that cheese.
All through school we are conditioned to think that different is bad. If someone wears clothes that don't look like our clothes, or they act or think differently than we do, we make fun of them for being different.
Cruel, right? But this is how we're taught. After all, what better way to control people than to make them police themselves? Independent thinkers are scary to the establishment and to big business. If we think on our own, then we realize we don't need their latest gadget or their newest brain washing device. Then we can't be controlled by others because we are now controlling ourselves.
In life and in business, strive to be the cheese. Be different. Think for yourself. Find all of those innate qualities you've repressed over the years in the name of “getting along” and conforming to the wishes of others, and reincorporate them into your life.
The real you is the person others are going to love following online because you're going to stand apart from the crowd. People need leaders. When you let your true, authentic self shine through, people will be drawn to you, to your charisma, and to your unique views and opinions. You then stand apart and you become the leader.
You become the cheese.