What is your competitive advantage?

Through Student Launch Pad, I love working with students to help them paint a clearer picture of their future and see more clearly where they want to be heading. This week's blog post at Student Launch Pad is about understanding your competitive advantage. Yet whether you are a student or not, the concept is useful for identifying the areas of your life that you need to direct your focus.

In Jim Collins’ Good to Great, he found that a key factor in an organization going from “good to great” was an understanding of and devotion to the one thing that company does better than anyone else.

It’s important for you as a student to apply this same concept of understanding your competitive advantage. What is it that you excel at, exceed expectations in, or surpass your peers in?

Many students say “yes” to every opportunity, whether it fits into their long-term goals or not. The temptation to over-commit can come from a variety of sources, including the desire to be “well-rounded,” to achieve, or from being known as a “go-to” person who will get things done. However, to college admissions or future employers, “well-rounded” can appear as a lack of focus.

As Greg McKeown writes, “If we don’t design our careers, someone else will.” He suggests that the number one career mistake that people make is not being deliberate enough in discerning what responsibilities to take on. Oftentimes many good opportunities distract us from our one great vision of the future. What are you saying “yes” to that is taking away from your competitive advantage?

What are you saying "yes" to that is distracting you from your vision?
What do you need to say "yes" to in order to move toward your vision?

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