Are you with the rest of the sheep or are you a mountain goat?

I've spent some quality time talking with Seth Godin over the past
couple of days. We focused our conversations on his new book, The Dip,
which is all about slogging through the adversity of growing a
business, and making your way to the other side where the glory is. And
it's his "dip" concept–the part of your business you toil through–that's
your greatest shield against would-be competitors.

But for me, there was a bigger message that jumped out from my time with Seth, and that's a choice we all have to make as entrepreneurs:

Are you with the rest of the sheep or are you a mountain goat?

Do you identify with this?

 

 

Or this?

If you had to choose one or the other… a pack animal blending in with countless others on the safe, tried-and-true path OR… a take-that-mountain, blaze-new-trails, go-it-alone-if-necessary, resourceful, rugged individual, which would it be?

In order to be the best, in order to create anything remarkable, in order to simply stand out in a world filled with noise, is there really any choice for an entrepreneur?

If you mull this over and conclude that there's a little sheepishness in you, you need to understand it, and quickly figure out how to convert it into full-on mountain goat – the cliff sides, isolation, treacherousness – they're all around and sheep can't survive in that environment.

And as only mountain goats know, the view from the top, past all of the adversity you'll have to endure, is like nothing else…