The Afterburner Success Partners Differentiator-Templates
We all want that one thing that sets us apart from the crowd and gives us an advantage, don’t we?
What is a differentiator?
When I developed Afterburner Success Partners (ASP) and the associated course material, I sought to do something unique and different with it. Something that was out of the norm and that people who enrolled in the course, completed, and applied the lessons would, in fact, be unique. They would join the 1% club, something we discussed in a recent post. Read on to learn what truly differentiates ASP and how you can use this resource to give yourself an advantage in the game of life. To be successful. So you can achieve your dreams and live your best life.
Each of us likes to think we are different from the crowd, that we stand out, that we are unique. Perhaps we secretly want to think we are better than the average person. If the truth be told, most of us think we are different and that we stand out in a particular manner. If you agree with that theory, what is it that sets each of us apart? Ponder that for a few minutes and see what you come up with.
The Youth Movement
In particular, we see this desire to be different and unique in young adults. While my children are long grown and gone, I still get to be around today’s youth and see this play out. Diane and I have five grandchildren, aged 11 to 17, each of them unique in their personality, likes and dislikes, and numerous other ways. For the most part, I would say, except for these individual traits that are part of every human’s DNA, they are pretty typical. In that, I mean that if you were to put any or all of them with a large group of the general population of children their age, they would fit in pretty well, and you would think of them as typical. As they age, they will become more educated (whether through formal education or general life experiences), and there will begin to emerge more notable differences between them. For example, some of them may choose to go to college. Some may join the military; some may directly enter the work world after high school. While I hope this does not happen, some may become criminals, drug abusers, alcoholics, or malcontents. As they age, their individual personality and upbringing will come into play to determine their life path. All of them, like all of us, want to fit in with the crowd, be part of a “club,” or otherwise be part of something. At the same time, we all want to have unique traits or skills that set us apart, give us a leg up, and help us be successful. Think about this for a minute and see if you agree with me.
To take this a step further, I’ve mentioned that I am a substitute instructor at a vocational-technical school. There are generally two groups of students that attend there: High school students who, perhaps, have chosen their career path and early or mid-career adults who want to do something different than they are doing now in their careers. In particular, with the high schoolers, I see an intentional effort to set themselves apart, to show their uniqueness. Generally, this is in the form of the clothes they wear, the hairstyles or hair color, piercings, tattoos, their embrace of technology, or their behavior. This is dramatically different from what you would see at a private college preparatory school, where there may be strict grooming, dress, and other standards, often including uniforms and strict control of the school day. Frankly, while I speak of this as unique, it’s really not. The young, and in some cases the not-so-young, have always desired to demonstrate their uniqueness, perhaps even their rejection of the status quo. Think of the 1960’s hippies, Vietnam War protestors, civil rights protestors, Black Lives Matter, or Occupy Wall Street. Heck, I was that way. For me, it was wanting to grow my hair long because that was the thing in the 1970s when I was coming of age. Oh, the fights I used to have with my parents! I’m sure you had your ways when you were young as well. What do you recall about those times?
Differentiators in business
Businesses are always looking to differentiate themselves and provide a unique product that gives them an edge to create sales, profit, and value for their investors. Typically, these differentiators fall along the lines of price, quality, or speed to market. By the way, I’m sure you have heard the old saying in business: “You can have it good, you can have it fast, or you can have it cheap. Pick any two.”
There are other differentiators as well. These include the following (Note 1):
They are rare. There are few or no others like them.
They deliver on their promises. Each of us knows this instantly about any organization we do business with.
What they say or do is provable. For example, if an airline states that it has the best on-time record, this fact can be proven.
They are relevant. They provide a product or service that is in demand and/or needed.
I believe we all instinctively know a unique business when we see one. They have upset the status quo, using disruptive innovation. Think Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Meta/Google (the so-called FANG stocks), Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Uber, and others like them. If you are an investor, you are always trying to find these companies while they are still developing before they become known.
Back in the 1990’s, I found a company like this. It was called Aeronet Wireless. Aeronet Wireless was either the developer of, or an early adopter of WI-FI, I can’t remember which. I caught this company just as they were budding after reading about it in Investor’s Business Daily newspaper. IBD is still around; it is a fantastic publication in digital and paper form. Anyway, the stock was discovered and took off like a rocket. I failed one of the major rules of investing: “Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.” I hung on too long, and stocks took a major hit for the Y2K tech bubble. In turn, it dropped like a rock and was eventually acquired by Cisco. When I eventually sold it, it was still a “12 bagger,” which is a stock that returned 12 times what I paid for it. Not bad, really. Can you say Nvidia? Conversely, I purchased America West Airlines at $12 a share in 1982, immediately before it began revenue service as it went public. Their CEO, had spoken to my class at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and I got so excited! I was happy to sell it at $2 shortly before bankruptcy. All that to say, I eventually took Warren Buffet’s advice and stuck with index funds. Yes, it’s a bit boring, but steady and predictable. If you want to see some fantastic advice by Warren Buffett, click on the link in Note 2. Remember, be like the tortoise, not the hare.
The Template, the differentiator
In previous posts, I mentioned that I am a voracious reader and mostly favor investment advice, personal improvement, and business-type books, newspapers, magazines, and digital information. I even invited readers to note my view in my LinkedIn profile or the video at the beginning of the online course to see my library. I’ve read a lot, I mean a LOT, over the years about how we each should set goals. Most of it is good advice; who could argue with it? Statistics prove that people who write their goals down are likelier to achieve them than those who don’t. Unfortunately, essentially all of those resources, while correct in what they were saying, were not practical to put to use. At least for me, and I suspect many others as well. So, with all the knowledge of what to do, I set out to develop my own method. I did and have used it for roughly 40 years now and found it to be a huge success. Then, in 2019, I decided I wanted to share that with others.
What makes Afterburner Success Partners unique is that I developed a template to use as we develop our financial, professional, and personal goals. We then use a similar template when we combine each of these goal categories into a lifetime goals and achievement plans template. You see, setting goals is one thing. Developing achievement plans is another. Determining exactly WHAT goals to set to help you live your dreams, developing plans to achieve those goals, and providing a method to track and course correct when necessary, well then you see, that is something quite unique—a differentiator. This differentiator helps you live your best life instead of having your goals melt away like New Year’s resolutions after a spring thaw. That’s all for this week!
What’s in it for Me
While we all want to fit in, we all also desire to be unique. In our own way, of course. We all have dreams and ambitions of things we want to do and be. The Afterburner Success Partners course will help you figure out precisely what you want and what you have to do to get it. Everything you want for the rest of your life. In one place. So you can join the 1% club. So you can be different.
Call to Action
Enroll in the course in any of its various forms. Buy the book of the same name (in final edit now and due out soon!). Tell your friends and family. Get going TODAY! So you can achieve your dreams and live your best life!
Recommended Resources
Buy and read the book Having it All: Achieving Your Life’s Goals and Dreams by John Assaraf (Note 3). As I always say, no use reinventing the wheel; let’s just learn from those who came before us and accomplished what we want to do.
Up Next
Your Financial Path-Rich or Wealthy?
Notes
Please note that as an Amazon Affiliate, I may earn a small commission on the sale of any of these recommended resources.
Differentiation as a strategy: How law firms stand out: https://headstarterz.com/en/blog/differentiation-how-do-i-stand-out-from-the-competition
10 Genius Things Warren Buffett Says To Do With Your Money: https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/10-genius-things-warren-buffett-says-do-your-money
Having it All: Achieving Your Life’s Goals and Dreams by John Assaraf: https://amzn.to/3NA7WX3