You may have already heard of Valeria Lukyanova, the living Barbie doll. If you haven’t, then the short version goes like this: Valeria wanted to look like a real Barbie doll, tiny waste, improbable curves, huge eyes and all – so she worked out, had extensive surgery done, and ended up looking surprisingly like a Barbie doll.
As you can imagine, some people strongly disapprove of what Valeria did, while others approve, or at least say that it is her right to do what she wants. We aren’t here to judge, though – we are to see what we can learn from Ms. Lukyanova.
1. Achieving results requires dedication
It doesn’t matter if you want to find more clients or look like a Barbie doll (or a Ken doll, as the case may be). If you don’t dedicate yourself to completing your goals, you won’t succeed at them. You don’t have to spend $100,000 on plastic surgery to alter your body, true, but you can dedicate an hour a day, or a day a week, to work towards your own goals. Do you want to find ways to write better code? Spend time researching this. Want to meet more customers? Dedicate a day each week to doing this.
2. Standing out gets people’s attention
True, you might not get as much attention as a 5 foot 5 inches living Barbie doll, but still. Lukyanova turned herself into a Barbie doll because she wanted to, and it landed her a photoshoot with V Magazine. Another example for standing out is from tennis player Novak Djokovic, who handed out chocolates to the press at a press conference after winning a few days ago.
So how do you stand out? Do you offer a 2 hour response time no matter what? Do you offer customer service in 5 languages? Do you insist on designing and printing 100 business cards for every website you design?
Standing out among your peers is an excellent way to be remembered.
3. You can’t please everyone
As I said, some people were horrified at what Lukyanova did. And some people, weren’t. So yes, I picked an extreme example on purpose, but the fact of the matter remains that no matter what you do, you can’t please everyone. I once worked with a customer service representative who always gave the same answer to everyone, regarding the software tool he was providing support for. Always the same answer, no matter what the problem was. You know what happened? 50% told him he wasn’t listening, and that he was giving bad service, and 50% thanked him for being so efficient and helpful!
Now, I’m not recommending that you do that, but I’m just reminding you that the next time a client doesn’t like what you do – remember, there are tons of potential clients out there that DO like what you do. And those are the people you want to work with.