Ricky Gervais. Actor, writer, director, atheist. Whatever box you choose to place him in, you’ll find a quote from Mr. Gervais on the subject. After reading countless articles and interviews from around the web I was inspired to create a list of the top Ricky Gervais quotes that’ll change the way you work. Prepare to be inspired!

Number One.

Everyone has the ability to create. Everyone! That baby playing with blocks on Christmas morning…. Guess what? They just created something. Creativity has the tendency to be stamped out of us at a young age. Throughout grade school, straying away from the norm is frowned upon and you suddenly become an “outsider”. On the outside is exactly where you want to be. The inside of the box is crowded, and lets be honest, it smells…

Here’s a great quote from Greg Ciotti of Help Scout on differentiation and selling your product:

“While a superior product and outstanding service are the foundation for growing a company that goes the distance, there is an opportunity to use differentiation as a competitive advantage in order to “stand out like a sore thumb.” – Greg Ciotti

Ricky Gervais is a sore thumb.  We should all aspire to be sore thumbs.

Number Two.

When you want your product or service to be different don’t fret about offending someone.  Chances are, these people are just looking for something to be offended by.  Offending someone’s feelings, as mentioned above, is impossible to measure.  Every human being on the Earth feels in a different way.  Attempting to cater to 7 billion people at once without offending one single person is next to impossible.  I never say impossible.  Nothing is impossible.  But this is probably as close as they come.

Just focus on giving your brand its own personal flare with something different that no one else in your market is doing; that’s where you’ll please the right people.  One of the coolest products I’ve stumbled upon recently is Man Crates.  They allow you to fill a crate with “manly” items and the crate is then shipped to you.  Notice the use of the word crate, not box.  They do, in fact, send you a crate that needs to be opened with a crowbar.  No company I’ve seen recently is delivering in a crazy, new way (other than the drones Amazon “claims” they will be using – link to that here –> Amazon Prime Air).  But Amazons “drone” service is a whole new post in itself.

So the moral of the story?  

Be like Mr. Gervais.  Be different.  Differentiate your brand.  Be the wolf among the sheep.  And don’t sweat it if a few sheep get offended by your choice of costume.