What attracts clients: “You don’t think like us”
“We love talking to you,” my anchor client told me yesterday. “Because you don’t think like us and you don’t talk like us.”
There’s nothing wrong with them; it’s not like their company’s culture turns them into robots. But they find it refreshing to have access to an outsider’s perspective.
That’s what I pride myself on delivering. It’s the promise implicit in the original name of this blog, which I took from a New York Times headline: “For the clearest view, use someone else’s eye.”
As for me, I’m always on the lookout for people who see things differently. Like the person behind this photo I found on Facebook, a British comedian named Phil Lucas. Does the artwork exist? It hardly matters; the sign alone is brilliant.
It’s easy to find people who think the way you do. Seek out the ones who think differently; your life and work will be richer for it.