I heard comedian Steve Martin say this a few years ago during a late night interview with Charlie Rose (who, by the way, is the world’s greatest interviewer, hands-down, IMHO). I couldn’t tell you the context of this statement or what question he was answering. I assume it had something to do with Steve’s secret to success or something along those lines.
I easily remember this quote years later. When I heard Steve Martin say this, it was like an arrow piercing my heart.
We all hear things from time to time that stop us in our tracks because they are profound, insightful, or packed with special meaning. Some things hit us deep and hard and really resonate with us, for whatever reason.
That’s what this statement was for me. Who in the world knows why. I immediately wrote it down to make sure I wouldn’t forget it.
"Be so good they can’t ignore you." Regardless of your field of pursuit, if you want to rise above the crowd, you must be good, very good! And this level of performance will cause your slice of the world to stand up and pay attention.
We could call this the “Wow Factor”. We’ve all had times when someone’s performance captivated us and held us in awe.
Do people say wow about you and your performance?
Cream rises to the top. Are you the cream or the coffee? Or the coffee grinds at the bottom of the cup?
How do you ignore someone who is that good? You can’t! You might not like the person. You might find yourself criticizing him. You might even be jealous. Perhaps he’s a competitor of yours.
Maybe he’s unseated one of your heroes. Maybe he goes against the grain of tradition and upsets the status quo. Maybe you disagree with his philosophy or despise his strategy. Maybe he has a bad attitude.
Then again, maybe he’s extremely likeable and magnetic, becoming the new “darling” amongst the field of already-familiar faces.
Whatever the case may be, one thing is for sure: it’s impossible to ignore someone that good. We can’t help but notice the standouts. We love to talk about the standouts. Something deep within us identifies with the standouts because WE want to be the standout.
We want to do great things. But that’s not quite enough. We want to do heroic things and live epic lives. That hero archetype runs deep within our souls. More on that in a future article.
I’m not a big fan of golf. Frankly, it bores me, among other things. I do know golf requires a tremendous amount of skill, and I respect anyone who is patient enough to keep trying to improve. Maybe I just don’t like it because I’m not any good at it!
I remember when Tiger Woods was coming into his greatness. A lot of people didn’t like him (I’m talking about the pre-scandal Tiger). Whatever the reasons were for not liking him back then, could anyone ignore Tiger? Of course not. And why not? Because his greatness on the links caused him to be un-ignorable.
When you’re “so good”, you’re un-ignorable.
My simple challenge and exhortation to you is to be great! Be "the one" people are talking about. Be extraordinary. Be heroic. Be epic. Don’t mess around with mediocre—“the best of the worst and the worst of the best”. Why would you do that?
Of course, we can’t be great at everything. We only have so much time, energy, and motivation. But that one or two or three things that really mean something to you, personally or professionally--open up the throttle.
Don’t be boring. Don’t be ordinary. Be remarkable. Be incandescent. And what is THE one surefire way to get your world talking about you?
By being so good that it is literally impossible for them to ignore you.