How To Become A Maven In Any Market
The term “competitive advantage” has traditionally been associated with the world of business, but this is no longer the case. Competitive Advantage 2.0 is all about the individual human being in the new economy. Information technology, the internet, and globalization have increased the level of competitiveness dramatically in all areas of life. But at the same time, these forces have empowered those of us who understand how to leverage who we are as unique individuals in this environment.
In general, the term “Web2.0″ usually refers to a social network or community. But it is really about the empowerment of the individual and what value he or she can add, or receive from, a community or niche. Web2.0 is just one aspect or effect of the powerful broader trends that are present in our world.
The dramatic changes that have been taking place in the world over the last 20 to 30 years demand that you, as an individual human being, learn to bring out the best in yourself. By doing this, you add value not just to yourself, but also to a community, a marketplace, and the world in general.
Although it is obvious to most people that the world has been experiencing tremendous change, few understand the implications of this change. When we step back and view the socioeconomic trends from a broader context, it becomes evident that the traditional means of becoming successful are no longer sufficient.
Knowledge, determination, and positive thinking are no longer the main determinants of success. They have become mere entry level requirements - still very necessary but now just an entry fee to play the game of life, a mere common denominator among the majority of the world’s population. And this has caused a lot of frustration for people in our world.
The bar is continually being raised everywhere. Information technologies and globalization will continually to dramatically impact our lives, and the world will continue to become more competitive. But, like a frog in a slowly heating pot of water that will eventually boil, at the individual level many people do not realize the significance of the broader trends.
Yet there is tremendous opportunity available to those of us who understand the trends and know how to utilize them. By aligning our strategies for success with the broader trends and utilizing our individuality, we can prosper. To benefit from these trends we must bring the concept of competitive advantage down to a personal level.
Many interpret the competitive forces at work in today’s world as being negative in nature, and having negative consequences. I hold the opposite view.
Increasing competitive forces at the level of the individual human should be seen as positive and embraced. The forces at work in today’s world are demanding that we explore and apply our “individual culture” in a way that creates a “competitive advantage 2.0″ that adds value to the world and earns the attention of consumers in the Web2.0 world.
The potential end result of this is, I believe, a happier, more positive, and more peaceful world. But to reap the benefits from the ever increasing levels of competition in our world it is required that we learn to leverage who we are as unique individuals to whatever in life we are passionate about. This is what the people that our society considers to be successful have done. This is particularly important for the Web2.0 entrepreneur to understand because we add new value to the marketplace through innovation and creativity.
Because of the socioeconomic changes that are occurring in our world, it has become increasingly important that the broader population understand what it takes to succeed in the new economy.
Success in the Web2.0 world is about how you, as an individual can apply innovation and creativity to solve problems and add value to a niche, community, or marketplace. Most authors just describe what is happening in the world. Here I provide tools and concepts that show you how to apply your individuality and creativity to develop a 2.0 competitive advantage and be the dominant maven in your market. To read more of Competitive Advantage 2.0, click here.
The Difference Between Competitive Advantage 1.0 And Competitive Advantage 2.0
Business on the internet is extremely competitive, much more competitive than the offline business world, in my view. In fact, it is about as close to perfect competition as a market can come. This makes it very difficult to create any kind of a sustainable competitive advantage in the Web2.0 world.
In the world of Web2.0 there are practically no barriers to entry and many of the tools to create a Web2.0 site are free commodities. Everything is out in the open and any one of your competitors can look at your website and copy its design, hire a coder to duplicate its look, use any freeware applications, etc. And anyone, anywhere in the world can quickly start an online business in under an hour, for little or no cost.
In other areas there are obvious exceptions to this, companies like Google have proprietary technologies and have established such a dominant position that it is hard to imagine them being overtaken. But as far as Web2.0 goes it can be considered close to perfect competition. Yet for those who develop sustainable competitive advantage in the Web2.0 world the rewards are tremendous.
In short, the only way to create a sustainable competitive advantage in the World of Web2.0 is through consistent applied creativity and innovation that in some way adds value which causes consumers to give you their attention.
In the world of business, a traditional, or 1.0, competitive advantage is generally defined as a condition that enables a company to consistently earn above average profits. A competitive advantage 2.0 can be defined as a condition that enables a Web2.0 site to consistently earn more attention from the consumer than its competitors.
In the realm of 1.0 competitive advantage, we saw that organizational culture was the only true source of long term sustainable competitive advantage. In the realm of 2.0 competitive advantage, the only true source of sustainable competitive advantage is applied innovation and creativity that arises out of individual culture. This is because of the nature of Web2.0. Web2.0 is concerned with the individual who is at the center of a network, all the while giving and taking value from that network. At its simplest level, adding value means doing or providing something that makes consumers lives better. –Darryl Dosti
Competitive Advantage 2.0
The term “competitive advantage” has traditionally been associated with the world of business, but this is no longer the case. Competitive Advantage 2.0 is all about the individual human being in the new economy. Information technology, the internet, and globalization have increased the level of competitiveness dramatically in all areas of life. But at the same time, these forces have empowered those of us who understand how to leverage who we are as unique individuals in this environment.
In general, the term “Web2.0” usually refers to a social network or community. But it is really about the empowerment of the individual and what value he or she can add, or receive from, a community or niche. Web2.0 is just one aspect or effect of the powerful broader trends that are present in our world.
The dramatic changes that have been taking place in the world over the last 20 to 30 years demand that you, as an individual human being, learn to bring out the best in yourself. By doing this, you add value not just to yourself, but also to a community, a marketplace, and the world in general.
Although it is obvious to most people that the world has been experiencing tremendous change, few understand the implications of this change. When we step back and view the socioeconomic trends from a broader context, it becomes evident that the traditional means of becoming successful are no longer sufficient.
Knowledge, determination, and positive thinking are no longer the main determinants of success. They have become mere entry level requirements – still very necessary but now just an entry fee to play the game of life, a mere common denominator among the majority of the world’s population. And this has caused a lot of frustration for people in our world.
The bar is continually being raised everywhere. Information technologies and globalization will continually to dramatically impact our lives, and the world will continue to become more competitive. But, like a frog in a slowly heating pot of water that will eventually boil, at the individual level many people do not realize the significance of the broader trends.
Yet there is tremendous opportunity available to those of us who understand the trends and know how to utilize them. By aligning our strategies for success with the broader trends and utilizing our individuality, we can prosper. To benefit from these trends we must bring the concept of competitive advantage down to a personal level.
Many interpret the competitive forces at work in today’s world as being negative in nature, and having negative consequences. I hold the opposite view.
Increasing competitive forces at the level of the individual human should be seen as positive and embraced. The forces at work in today’s world are demanding that we explore and apply our “individual culture” in a way that creates a “Competitive Advantage 2.0” that adds value to the world and earns the attention of consumers in the Web2.0 world.
The potential end result of this is, I believe, a happier, more positive, and more peaceful world. But to reap the benefits from the ever increasing levels of competition in our world it is required that we learn to leverage who we are as unique individuals to whatever in life we are passionate about. This is what the people that our society considers to be successful have done. This is particularly important for Internet entrepreneurs to understand because we add new value to the marketplace through innovation and creativity. –Darryl Dosti
How To Be Better Than Everyone Else
For a long time I felt there was something wrong with me. I could not figure out why I was not achieving my goals. It was not for lack of determination or knowledge, I had a lot of both, but so does everyone else. I started to feel as if success just wasn’t meant for me.
But then I noticed something.
I noticed that the people who had achieved a good deal of success had a certain quality about them, something I call “Personal Competitive Advantage™.”
They had figured out something obvious that most people overlook. Most people overlook this because:
- They are looking in the wrong place
- They don’t have a method for utilizing the resources at their disposal
That is why I wrote my book “Competitive Advantage 2.0.” (due out at the end of January 2008)
But please don’t be misled by the title of this post. Creating a Personal Competitive Advantage is about leveraging who you are as an individual to create value for yourself and the world and in the process becoming happier and making the world a better place.
It’s about understanding your “Individual Culture” (see previous post) and creating a new Mental Framework that guides your decision-making and actions in an optimal way.
As I have stated before, the bar is being raised everywhere, in every way. The effects of information technology, the internet and globalization have left no field untouched. Understanding how to develop and sustain competitive advantage is as important as ever, and will only increase in importance in the future.
Knowledge, determination, and positive thinking are no longer the main determinants of success. They have become entry level requirements - still very necessary but now just an entry fee to play the game of life, a mere common denominator among the majority of the world’s population.
On an individual level, creating a Personal Competitive Advantage can mean the difference between success and failure, frustration and happiness, and adding value or being worthless.
Start thinking about how you can apply your uniqueness to whatever field, career, skill or whatever else it is that you are passionate about. When you do this and then apply the proper methodology to create a new Mental Framework™, you will be creating your own Personal Competitive Advantage. –Darryl Dosti
Discovering your “Individual Culture”
Positive thinking and determination are no longer any guarantee of success. They are now merely entry fees to play the game of life.
For you, the individual human being, success now requires that you find a way to leverage what I call your “individual culture.”
For an individual person, the integration of their personality, unique individual traits & characteristics (idiosyncrasies), values, likes, dislikes, passions, talents, knowledge, etc, and anything else that makes them unique constitutes their “individual culture”.
Leveraging your individual culture:
I was watching videos of Jimi Hendrix on youtube the other day. You can’t help but marvel at how unique and advanced his skills were. He added a tremendous amount of innovation and value to the world by applying his unique talents to a set of competencies in the context of “guitar playing.”
One cannot deny that Jimi Hendrix had fully leveraged his individual culture when he picked up a guitar. By applying his individual culture to the competencies and skills within the context of guitar playing, he created a unique competitive advantage, and added an incredible amount of value to our culture and society. 
Understanding your individual culture is an important part of life in general.
The ramifications of not understanding your individual culture are many, but in general, not understanding who you are as a person means that you will not be able to develop a competitive advantage for anything in life, and this can dramatically limit your success and happiness, or at a minimum make it relatively more difficult to achieve your goals. In my book, Personal Competitive Advantage™, I explain a method you can apply to your own life that allows you to leverage your individual culture into a sustainable competitive advantage. –Darryl Dosti