Ways to distinguish yourself #161 – Discover your “Niagara Factor”
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 19 Aug 2006, 5:32 PM – 4 Comments
Early part of my career, I lived in India, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. I had heard of Niagara Falls and seen it in movies but never had a chance to see it until about seven years ago. I knew what to expect – something spectacular. Friends who had visited Niagara had told me that it was an out of the world experience. There were some of them who had been there about once a year for the last five years or so and they were planning to go there again next year. So the expectation from Niagara was very high. When I went there though – what I experienced was more than spectacular. It exceeded the “already high” expectation that was set in my mind. There was that magic and wonder that you can’t really explain in words. I knew I would be amazed but I could never imagine the level of amazement. It was way beyond my wildest imagination.
With that as the background, let us imagine that one of your friends (let’s call him John) is talking “something” VERY positive about you to his friend (let’s call him Chris.) Chris is now intrigued and he wants to meet with you. Remember that, right now Chris has a high expectation about that “positive thing” that John told him about you. John arranges a meeting between you and Chris. So here comes the day of the meeting. Chris comes in with a high expectation and as he starts talking to you about that subject, he is blown away by your brilliance on that particular topic (whatever it is.) In other words, he just experienced your “Niagara Factor”
Niagara factor is your something that is hard for people to explain or describe in its full intensity. They can tell nice things about it but they still can’t do full justice to what you bring forth. It is something that will amaze people that you know for a long time.
Sadly, many people don’t know what their “Niagara Factor” is. For these people, their success is their enemy. They are already successful without taking full advantage of their “Niagara Factor” so they may not even know that they have a problem. People who come in contact with them see that there is something “special” but it is too obvious for them to mention.
In the next few days, think whether you have been ignorant of your “Niagara Factor.” If you are, it is not too late to fix it. By being conscious of this, you can channelize some of your energies to make it even better.
Good luck!
For the rest of the 160 articles in this series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic:
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish Yourself Related Articles:
- Ways to distinguish yourself – #51 Work on your “Mile High Factor”
- Ways to distinguish yourself – #85 Bring the right puzzle pieces into the game
- Ways to distinguish yourself – #18 Be relevant
- “25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself” released at ChangeThis.com
Posted in the Distinguish yourself, Main Page category.
4 Comments so far, Add Yours
Anonymous on August 20th, 2006
Thanks Hannes for stopping by and for your kind comments.
Have a great weekend.
Best,
Raj
Anonymous on August 21st, 2006
Raj,
Isn’t the opposite also true. i.e you set-up very high expectations that people may actually get disappointed because of the hype (you’d have done just fine otherwise, but the other person was disappointed because of incorrectly set expectations). For example, I was a little disappointed when I first saw Golden Gate Bridge. No doubt its great, but I was expecting a lot more, without any reason. Do you get me?
RamP!
Anonymous on August 21st, 2006
Yes RamP… What you are saying is what happens m
ost often. We don’t need to work hard for it. On a daily basis, we can see people over-promising and under-delivering. So, when people expect a 8/10, they typically see a 6/10. I agree with you that it should be avoided. [Pssst.. marketers won’t like this]
“Niagara Factor” is something about you that when people are expecting 8/10, they get to experience something like 18/10
Best,
Raj
Leave a Comment
Anonymous on August 20th, 2006
Raj,
Congratulations and thank you for your efforts to put together free eBooks. I am convinced that they do help a large number of people to manage daily life’s challenges!
Wish you all the best for future projects and be sure that I really like your website!!
Hannes