The purple cow is a remarkable book by Seth Godin.

I started reading Seth’s books when I established my own architectural practice and I needed to find a way to let potential clients know about my services.

His books are interesting and quick to read – a mix of notes, posts, collages assembled in his backroom but it works just as well. I often read his books for free at the bookshop. I spend my money on coffee instead.

The message that Seth tries to put across is that old marketing solutions no longer work in modern society. So far there is nothing new here as the world is always evolving, but what Seth does really well is to remind the reader is that being remarkable is the only marketing approach that works in the modern days.

I have put together the following sketch to better illustrate my personal interpretation of the benefits of being remarkable. I called my sketch ‘going yellow in a grey world’.

Now if you are thinking how easy it is to stand out from the crowd let me assure you that Seth is pretty good at reminding us that going yellow (or being remarkable) is not a simple task. His books are not about how I made a million in social media and you too can do it too. His books praise the opposite idea. Only one in a million makes a million bucks, sort of thing. Still, every time I return his books to the bookshelf and leave the bookstore, I often think that designing remarkable architectural buildings is what I should be striving to achieve right now.

If Seth is an inspirational marketer the Vodafone’s advertisement campaign ‘power to you’ acts the same way every time I see it.  I often wonder why Vodafone would give me power but it works as an analogy here too… what Vodafone seems to be keen to let me know is that the new technology, allows a nobody, working from a site shed in the middle of the outback, to publish remarkable content and collect the dividends.

I am not sure if Seth regards Vodafone’s advertisement campaign as remarkable but it certainly inspires me. Seth talks about the power of being remarkable but Vodafone is just around the corner with the power to leverage your remarkableness.

These days, thanks to the concept power to you, a Mickey Mouse Twitter user, can be as inspirational as the latest Coca Cola advertisement that cost them a zillion dollars. This is a true social revolution and as far as I know no one died in the process.

So you have read this far. We have discussed the benefits of being remarkable and how the social revolution going on can leverage our remarkableness, but how do we go about doing it? How do we go about being remarkable? Did I lure you to read this post to repeat what has already been told or do I have something to add to the discussion about how to improve our remarkableness?

Let me start by saying that like most people I haven’t done anything professionally remarkable.  Establishing my own architectural practice was a bold move and so far the only remarkable achievement I have made was to remain afloat. But that is not the point, is it? Sharing what I have been doing to improve my shot at being remarkable is what I should be discussing in this post.

It goes without saying that being creative, keep improving what you do and never stop experimenting is all we need to do to improve our odds at being remarkable. But it also goes without saying that being creative is dependent on being able to tap on a stream of new ideas when we need it. What I am about to share is how I keep my personal stream from drying out.

Does the sentence mens sana in corpore sano mean something to you?

The wisest of you will recognized the Latin quote as being from Juvenal, anyone else will have to google it (I am not doing it for you) and learn the meaning of it. But why have i picked the famous sentence of Juvenal as my best shot at being remarkable?

Am I pulling your leg? Not quite. Let me say that in order to keep my body fit I run at least three times a week. I always run the same course, as if in auto pilot, totally disconnected with the world around me. There is something powerful about this disconnection when we consider outcomes.

It amazes me that while at home, in the pub or at work I am often distracted by the mundane and I have to fight to come up with ideas, when I am running, ideas simply divert towards me. Running has helped me to write this post for example. I was struggling to find the relationship between Seth and the power of being remarkable with the Vodafone campaign until I went for a run this morning and finished the post in a flash after returning home.

Now that I have shared with you how the concept of mens sana in corpore sano affects my remarkableness it is time for you to use the dialog balloon at the top to let me know what works for you. Also if you think this post is worth sharing don’t be shy to use the sharing features below the main title.

Thanks in advance