The Easiest Way to Stand Out With Your Work

It's not what you think

Your work must stand out. 

Either it should grab the attention of discerning onlookers or it should provide extraordinary value to the person using it. Preferably it should do both. 

That’s what great work is all about. 

When we think about ways to stand out with our work, one word immediately pops up in our minds: Different. 

We think our work needs to be different and distinctive. 

We think it needs to have that panache, that aura, that halo around it. 

We want it to be wrapped up in a red satin cloth which people are required to unveil to see it, and when they do see it we want them to go berserk with excitement. 

We want that work to be a masterpiece.

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There’s no harm in thinking on those lines but let me offer a counterargument. 

I believe the easiest way to stand out with your work is to just do your best work. 

Put that extra effort in thinking and execution. 

Do that painful dance of going back and forth, iterate until you feel it’s perfect. 

Look at it multiple times during the day, go to sleep while thinking about it and wake up thinking about it. Care for the nuances, dive into the details.

Produce an output that’s so impeccable that your boss or your audience forget to blink and breathe while consuming it. 

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Why I believe this is a better way to go about it?

Because very few people do that. 

Being meticulous and having a keen eye for detail and not compromising on quality is not everyone’s cup of tea. 

If you’re able to consistently produce a high-quality output then you’d automatically put yourself in the top 1% of your field of work. 

In fact, this is probably the most common way the top 1% in the world have stood out. 

People are often surprised when they meet a top performer. They can’t understand what’s so special about them and how they ended up in the upper echelons of their profession. They eventually boil it down to dumb luck. “Look at that lucky bastard,” they say. 

Luck certainly has a role to play. But it’s a percentage. 

The rest of the equation comprises of all the traits I mentioned. 

And, of course, a mad work ethic. 

When you combine attention to detail, open mindedness, great taste and relentless focus on quality with a strong work ethic then you know that your work is going to stand out. 

It may not be “different” or “creative”, and it doesn’t need to be. 

What it will be is flawless. 

How many flawless products or services can you recall? 

You get the picture. 

So, aim for flawless first. That’s the path to distinctiveness.