How You Can Think Outside The Box For Success

In a world that often seems saturated with industries and players, it might seem hard to stand out from the rest. While building an A level team and managing your time well may be a great start to high performance, there can also be benefits from thinking outside the box. If you take on this mindset, it could help you move to a new level in your profession and business.

Follow these steps to think outside the box for lasting success.

Take a Different Approach to Get Noticed

In the real estate business, Ryan Serhant, a real estate broker, CEO and founder of SERHANT, a vertically-integrated mega brokerage, is one of the great inspirations for thinking outside the box. He truly encapsulates how to take a different approach to building a brand. His activities have attracted attention not only for himself but also, and more importantly, for his clients and the properties that he sells.

Ryan starred on Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York, which at the time was mainly unchartered territory for brokers. Through his involvement with the show, he gained exposure to a global audience and significantly elevated his profile. Ryan is also a bestselling author, and when he launched his book “Big Money Energy,” he duct-taped it to his hand as part of his marketing campaign. Everywhere he went people noticed his book, and the advertisement didn’t cost him anything.

Reflecting on his actions, we see that at every step of his career, Ryan has played on another level. His efforts have made both his profile and his brand more memorable. And he’s helped other brokers think about how to adopt and utilize social media and digital marketing. This concept of taking on a different perspective can be applied to other industries and businesses as well. You might venture where others haven’t before or try tools that haven’t been used in the past to reach your audience.

Set Aside Time to Be Curious

While you’ll likely be drawn into daily deadlines and urgent matters that come up, there can be value in carving out time for deep thinking. It will give you an opportunity to take an overview of your business as a whole. You also might spend some time studying trends and innovations to see how they could be applied to your situation. Doing research on AI or taking a course on new technologies could help you develop a fresh perspective on what your future business could look like.

Create an Untapped Market

In the book “Blue Ocean Strategy,” authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne make the point that steep competition among companies typically leads to a bloody red ocean of rivals struggling to gain profits from a shrinking pool. However, the authors add that, rather than fighting battles, lasting success can be found by developing a “blue ocean,” which they describe as an untapped new market space ripe for growth.

The book discusses how high-performing companies have offered a new product or service at such a level that it doesn’t face competition. This way, instead of trying to reduce prices to stay ahead or take out another player in the segment, these firms branch into a whole new area. This may be the greatest example of how to think outside the box and create an opportunity for yourself and your business.

While it may take time to develop, thinking outside the box can be implemented as a lifelong mindset. As you maintain your business and look to move up, it can be helpful to consider new and different approaches. You might break out of routine occasionally to be curious and think creatively. As you do so, you could even come up with a product or service that hasn’t been done before—and has an audience ready and eager to accept it.