“The Extra Mile Is Never Crowded.”
Every day you get to work or start your project, you must decide how much effort you are going to put in. A little, normal amount, or you overdo it completely. Few choose the latter option, which gives you the edge.
As the writer Adam Chudi notes, it is not very common to overcome the extra mile (otherwise it would be a normal mile). What makes sense! Why put in more effort than you need to? If you can keep up with everyone after walking five miles, why walk six? Well, there is at least one good reason: because you immediately stand out just by putting in the effort.
Did you really want the job you were applying for? The other 1,000 online job seekers did the same. How many of them do you think logged into Linkedin and personally contacted the hiring manager or someone in the organization? I can promise that there were much less than a thousand of them. How many of those who wrote by email called the front desk, asked about this person and left them a private message? Probably no one. Maybe 1 …
If you want people to know your name. If you need a job. Fans. Body. Whatever you want. Get the hell out of the extra mile, because I can promise you … it can get lonely here, but it certainly isn’t crowded.
The craziest thing is that we all already know this. We rush to the exceptional, like moths to the flame. When someone is the best at something, we are in awe of it. We will share videos of them, post pictures of them, tell their stories. It’s easy to assume they got there because they are special. Because they were born with the right genes or circumstances that made them the best through no fault of their own. While this helps, more often than not, they just put in the extra effort that other people don’t. A willingness to do more than is necessary is often the key differentiator between average and unusual.
An extra mile is never crowded | Adam Chudi via Rockstar Finance