Gurus often say when everyone is zigging, you should zag. But there’s no proof this works – even if you had any real idea about who it is that’s zigging in the first place – and what that ‘zigging’ is.

The real message is that to stand out, you need to do something different. The problem with standing out is you increase the risk of not being seen at all (or at the very least, being seen as weird).

This is the difference between evolution and revolution. The more revolutionary you get, the more you stand out and run the risk of being rejected. Pioneers have arrows in their backs for a reason.

In my experience, it’s been the people who market themselves with one amazing extra value their competitors don’t have who stand out just far enough to be taken seriously.

There’s a lot to this as you can imagine. Context matters. People who are highly aware of a particular problem, will have seen most of the solutions.

And if they still didn’t go for them, then it will take that one special extra to make it.

On the other hand, if they’ve been bombarded with messages and end up preferring one particular solution, the next young pretender is going to have to get revolutionary to even get noticed, let alone change their minds.

So next time someone tells you to zig when everyone else is zagging ask for proof.