Joker (in The Dark Knight):

See, I'm not a monster....I'm just ahead of the curve.

AdAge ran an article yesterday about a car saleswoman, Laura Madison, at a Toyota dealership in a rural area somewhere in the US. Laura has been outperforming the other sales people in the dealership by promoting her own brand through social media and personalized cards to her customers and her blog and several other ways that people use to build and promote their brand.

The article progresses to state that her boss is looking for her to train the rest of the dealership staff and to figure out ways to incorporate her marketing strategies for the dealership.

Her strategy is working because she is different. She is ahead of the curve. If everybody starts following the same strategy, then there would be hundreds of blogs and social media accounts for car salesmen. This will drive the customers towards a single point of contact, like a dealership that will abstract the fifty sales people it employs and present a single face.

It is your strength that you need to focus on. The road to glory is not a freeway. If you treat it as one, you'll be stuck in the traffic jam with hordes of others who do the same.

Instead, like Laura, figure out a way to get ahead of the curve.