One more suggestion on the topic of being copied and how to avoid it by being unique, like a snowflake. Think of yourself, your work, your life as a journey rather than a destination. A bit cliché perhaps but quite relevant here in that it is pretty difficult to copy something that is constantly changing and moving.
In the case of individuals such as ourselves, or for organizations, businesses, etc. what I think this means is that you are constantly finding new ways of pursuing you passion, your fundamental value proposition. We certainly do this by developing solutions to problems we are working on, which are the “destinations” in this case. These are good things, accomplishments and valuable. However they will almost certainly want to have a finite time limit to them simply because the conditions and context that make these solutions “just right” will be changing and therefore so too do the solutions need to change.
Furthermore it is these solutions or destinations which are the easiest to copy and so if they are constantly changing or going away, the concern for copying goes away as well. Similarly, while these solutions are the elements of value at any given time, the true value proposition we have to offer is the steady supply of such solutions, which is the “journey” in this case.
Because it is largely people we are discussing being “copied” here, the only things others could really copy are the specific outputs or “content” from you; captured versions of your writings, illustrations, audio, video, photos, etc. Whereas your value is that you are constantly coming up with more of this unique output, that is increasingly relevant, increasingly new, different and valuable. Hence it is YOU and the journey you are on which is the real value to others and this is impossible to copy.
I’ve always been a “journey person” so perhaps I’m overly biased or only see things this way? What are your experiences?
Long Slow Chat 