In the 80s you’d walk into a record shop and the store owner, along with the record company would literally tell you what to buy. In every store there was a wall with 100 square compartments, numbered unsurprisingly—TOP 100. You got to chose from what everyone else liked, or what DJs were playing that week. The mainstream, the normal.

Telling people what to believe and what to buy worked for a little while, but it’s not working so well now. Now it’s cool to be the guy who discovered the little band from Texas before the rest of the world knew about them. People don’t want to be mainstream or normal. They no longer want a choice of rock or pop, punk or disco, this or that?

People aren’t just buying different, they are making choices right out there on the edges, as far out on the precipice as it’s possible to go. People want what they want, not what the world tells them they can have.

We have witnessed the end of ‘or’ and the rise of the uncommon advantage, which leaves untapped markets, unfulfilled needs and unspoken desires ripe for discovery, reinvention and innovation.
The world is waiting for you.

Image by Sharon Drummond.