Make. Yours. Better.

The best advice I ever received.

Being a creative problem solver is a big part of who I am. I see problems, or ‘gaps in the market,’ and I come up with ways to solve them. It’s how my mind works.

I suspect that many people have, at one point, come up with a great idea. Often when we do, our first instinct is to rush to Google to see if someone else is already doing it, and there’s nothing more disappointing to find out that someone else has beaten you to the punch.

Trust me, I’ve been there. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought up an idea I thought was unique and revolutionary, only to find out that someone had thought of it first. The only thing worse is finding out they’ve been doing it for 6 months to a year, and their website is COVERED in “As seen on” logos that include the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, etc.

When this happens, our tendency is to simply abandon the idea altogether. After all, we’re creators, not copiers. We don’t want to be seen as someone who ripped off someone else. We want to be recognized as the ones who finally solved the puzzle.

I’ve been guilty of this thinking myself recently, so I wanted to share some advice for those who may be in the same boat. It’s so simple, yet we often forget it in the quest to be unique.

When faced with competition or other players in whatever you’re doing, the only approach is this:

Make. Yours. Better.

You will NEVER be the only person doing something. It doesn’t matter if you’re first, second, or 40th, you’ll always have other people doing what you do. Your only choice is to produce the best output you can, in an attempt to solve the problem more effectively than others.

The other guy may have more money, more education, or even a head start. But that doesn’t mean you should give up on a good idea. Look at what they’re doing, and identify what you think you can do better. After all, they don’t have the one thing that you do: they don’t have you.

So if you have a great idea, and you find out someone beat you to it, just make yours better. After all, isn’t that what you set out to do in the first place?