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.

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

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

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

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

Do you feel, as I once did, that your mental processes are “narrow minded” and dogmatic? If so, you may be trapped in an inefficent mental prison. If you are trapped in a mental prison, you will feel it internally. Your gut, or intuition, will be silently telling you so.

The common symptoms of being trapped in a mental prison are constant frustration, a lack of enthusiasm, boredom, little or no creative thinking, and a lack of progress towards your goals.

The dangers of a poor “mental framework“™:

There is nothing that can limit your success in life more than being narrow minded. When you are narrow minded, you are operating your life from a very inefficient “mental framework.” You fail to see opportunities to apply your individual uniqueness to the objective world.

In effect, when you are stuck in this inefficient state you have no “personal competitive advantage™” whatsoever. The decisions that you make internally and the actions that you take in the objective world come from a weak and inefficient mental framework. A mental prison causes “victim” thinking and a reactive (instead of proactive) attitude towards life in general.

Breaking out of the mental prison:

You can, and should, take responsibility for creating your own success. How does one create success in such a competitive world? You create what I call “personal competitive advantage.” Personal competitive advantage arises out of the creation of an improved mental framework.

Installing a new mental framework:

In the movie The Matrix, Neo developed a competitive advantage once he understood how to leverage the resources at his disposal. Just as the players in the Matrix installed new mental frameworks with instructions on how to excel, you too can install a new mental framework that utilizes your uniqueness and the body of knowledge within a particular context.

Determination and persistence are no longer enough to succeed in our competitive world, they are now just an entry fee to get into the game. To succeed, you need a personal competitive advantage over the competition. -Darryl Dosti

I am talking about sustainable competitive advantage.

Just as a successful business has a sustainable competitive advantage, every successful person has developed a personal competitive advantage. Anyone who has achieved a high level of consistent success has figured out how to apply their individual uniqueness to some field or skill. They have not just gotten down the learning curve, they have figured out a way to shift it in their favor.

The bar is being raised everywhere. Persistence, determination, and knowledge are no longer enough, they are now minimum requirements. In our hyper-competitive global economy we need to apply our unique individual qualities to find ways to add value to the marketplace.

When we have an actual method that allows us to apply our individual uniqueness to a set of skills we can effectively align who we are as individuals with the competencies that are necessary to succeed. We “individualize” the skills. Our actions then become optimized and second nature in feeling. We create uniqueness in action and a competitive edge.

If you are frustrated that you are not achieving your goals you have probably not developed a personal competitive advantage. But how do we develop this? Can a new “mental framework”™ be installed in our minds? In my book “Personal Competitive Advantage™” due out later this month I discuss just such a method. -Darryl Dosti

“new elite cosmopolitan age where knowledge workers have become the real generators of wealth… It is now abundantly clear that knowledge workers are the real generators of wealth. They always have been, only now they realize it. For their knowledge is the basis of innovation, and innovation underpins the creation of alternatives - not only alternative products but also alternative procedures. Alternatives deliver new competitive advantages, and destroy the old. …The income of these owners of intellectual wealth will increase substantially. They will be made welcome anywhere in the world, no matter what their age, race, sex, color, or creed. “

Of course, knowledge, in and of itself, achieves absolutely nothing. Knowledge, in and of itself does not produce competitive advantage. It must be applied by individuals that utilize their talents to add value and create wealth. Personal competitive advantage is what allows us to create value and wealth. Without it, you will be among the increasing masses that are forced to compete for insecure service or other low skilled jobs. Quoting from the New Barbarian Manifesto once again:

“(National Economic) growth has been decoupled from employment, it is created from the talent of a few knowledge workers, not from the labor of low grade service and production workers. Growth is delivered by entrepreneurs, but only if they are given the incentives, and otherwise left alone…. Companies and individuals, not countries, generate the wealth. New technology has released these organizations and knowledge workers from any geographical constraint, and they are roaming the world looking for free-thinking countries as partners.”

Understanding how to develop and sustain a personal competitive advantage is now more important than ever, and its importance will only increase in the future when you consider the trends discussed above. The old models of narrow minded, dogmatic management and bureaucracy have fallen by the wayside in this brave new world. What matters now is how you as an individual can add value to the world and make someone else’s life better in the process. What can you, as a unique individual apply and leverage through some context to add value to the world? Do you have a competitive advantage?

This is not a time to fear competitive forces. It is a time to embrace them. The current environment presents opportunity. The opportunity lies in being able to utilize our individual and organizational idiosyncrasies in the global marketplace. We do this by developing a Personal Competitive Advantage™. –Darryl Dosti

Remember Muhammad Ali? He developed a fighting style that was in alignment with all the things that constituted his individual culture (everything that made him unique as an individual). His personality, his physical skills, his determination, his internal values, etc… all the elements of his internal culture were combined with the competencies in the context of boxing in an optimal way.

This created a competitive advantage that only reached its end after a great career. He believed he was the greatest fighter in the world, as well as one of the most entertaining people in sports. He combined boxing competencies with his individual culture into a proprietary competence. This proprietary competence flowed into everything he did. The result was a sustained competitive advantage. Whether they are aware of it or not, every person who has achieved a high degree of success has done this, usually unconsciously. I show you how to do it consciously in my book “Personal Competitive Advantage™” due out at the end of January, 2008.–Darryl Dosti

So what separates the winners from the losers in life? Of course, determination and persistence play a role, but everyone else also has those qualities. They are a given, like showing up to the Olympics in great physical shape. In other words they are a minimum requirement. If you have determination and persistence then you have brought yourself up to the same level as everyone else.

Have you have read all the self-help stuff, gone to the seminars, set your goals and work toward them every day yet you still wind up frustrated year after year, spinning your wheels? It is because you do not know what separates the winners from the mediocre in life…. The winners know how to apply their unique individual characteristics in a way that gives them an edge at whatever they do. In short, what separates the winners from the losers is “personal competitive advantage.”

You have a personal competitive advantage at something when you have found a way to apply who you are as an individual to whatever it is you are doing. You in effect “individualize” the skills you are focused on. No matter what your field, career, or goals, in order to develop a competitive advantage you must not only adapt to the context, but adapt the context to who you are as an individual. All successful people have done this.

We are all different for a reason. On this New Years Eve, make a vow to stop being mediocre. Embrace, apply, and utilize who you are as an individual. Be happy that you are unique and learn to apply and adapt your uniqueness to create a personal competitive advantage. -Darryl Dosti