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everyone do it? Why is it so hard to be Purple?
    Some folks would like you to believe that there are too few great ideas or that their product or their industry or their company can’t support a great idea. This, of course, is nonsense.
    The Cow is so rare because people are afraid.
    If you’re remarkable, it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise—ever. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.
    Where did you learn how to fail? If you’re like most Americans, you learned in first grade. That’s when you started figuring out that the safe thing to do was to fit in. The safe thing to do was to color inside the lines, don’t ask too many questions in class, and whatever you do, be sure your homework assignment fits on the supplied piece of card stock.
    We run our schools like factories. We line kids up in straight rows, put them in batches (called grades), and work very hard to make sure there are no defective parts. Nobody standing out, falling behind, running ahead, making a ruckus.
    Playing it safe. Following the rules. Those seem like the best ways to avoid failure. And in school, they may very well be. Alas, these rules set a pattern for most people (like your boss?), and that pattern is awfully dangerous. These are the rules that ultimately lead to failure.
    In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.
    Jon Spoelstra, in Marketing Outrageously, points out the catch-22 of the Purple Cow. If times are tough, your peers and your boss may very well say that you can’t afford to be remarkable. After all, we have to conserve, to play it safe; we don’t have the money to make a mistake. In good times, however, those same people will tell you to relax, take it easy; we can afford to be conservative, to play it safe.
    The good news is that the prevailing wisdom makes your job even easier. Since just about everyone else is petrified of the Cow, you can be remarkable with even less effort. If successful new products are the ones that stand out, and most people desire not to stand out, you’re set!
    So it seems that we face two choices: to be invisible, anonymous, uncriticized, and safe, or to take a chance at greatness, uniqueness, and the Cow.
    According to the New York Times, a fourteen-block stretch of Amsterdam Avenue in New York contains about seventy-four restaurants. What’s most noticeable about these restaurants is how boring they are. Sure, they offer cuisine from twenty or thirty cultures, and the food is occasionally quite good, but there are precious few remarkable places here. The restaurants are just plain dull compared to the few amazing restaurants in New York.
    Why? Simple. After spending all that money and all that time opening a restaurant, the entrepreneur is in no mood to take yet another risk. A restaurant that’s boring won’t attract much criticism. If it’s just like the others, no one will go out of their way to bad-mouth it. Ray’s Pizza is just plain average. You won’t get sick, but you won’t grin with pleasure, either. It’s just another New York pizza place. As a result, the owner makes a living, rarely having to worry about a bad review or offending anyone.
    We’ve been raised with a false belief: We mistakenly believe that criticism leads to failure. From the time we get to school, we’re taught that being noticed is almost always bad. It gets us sent to the principal’s office, not to Harvard.
    Nobody says, “Yeah, I’d like to set myself up for some serious criticism!” And yet ... the only way to be remarkable is to do just that.
    Several decades ago, when Andrew Weil went to Harvard Medical School, the curriculum was much the same as it is today. The focus was on being the best doctor you could be, not on challenging the medical establishment.
    Weil took a different