Why I Am Not Afraid To Think Different

I have had people tell me I am a bit of a goof ball because I approach things a little different. I do not post the same thing all the other domain bloggers post or people say that I am nuts for saying invest in .COMs, .NETs, and .ORGs but then I go and build a business on .MEs.

Well, it is all about thinking different, most of the very successful people I know have always thought differently, they tend to have quirks and they tend to say or do things that people think are just a bit odd because, in the end, they did not think of it themselves first.

Most startup companies that do great things are successful because they were different, their founders were different, their idea took an old idea and made it something new. People said no way but by looking past that and seeing what could be (having vision) they succeeded in showing people that they need to quit looking back and start looking forward, or thinking different.

Well, I have a long history of being just a bit different and people telling me so at the time but I always felt my direction was going the right way even if I had headed down a different fork in the road than the person that went long before me.

A few examples of where I was a little "different":

I road Freestyle BMX (back in the day, mid to late 80s) before it was part of the multibillion dollar alternative sports industry. On a domaining note, I own BmxFreestyleBikes.com:)

When my mentor at AT&T told me to focus on something other than the Internet because it was a fad like the CB radio, well I did not listen. Good thing huh...

While at ATT I was asked to work on the first VoIP network team, all the 30 year Bellhead guys said get away, it is not going to work, you are wasting your time. Well I made it through the several years of telecom layoffs without ever losing a job because VoIP took off and grew. Heard of Skype or Google Voice, yep VoIP services.

In other words, I am ok with people questioning why I choose to do things a certain way that may not be the same path they took because in time a different approach may be needed for people just entering a certain area.

The point here is at times a different fork in the road may be needed to find success. In many cases the people that came before had a different set of circumstances that led to their success. But in most cases it took someone thinking differently, its ok, be different. Build that .TV or that .ME. If you cannot afford that 100K .COM find a new way to build your business.