It means that you don’t perfectly fit in to the everyday jigsaw of life. It means that what works for and applies to others does not always work for or apply to you.

While everyone else is out on Friday night, you might be crouched over your computer, finishing up an advertising strategy. When you’re out on a field trip with your kid’s class, you might be on your cell phone in the middle of the bus with your finger in your other ear, discussing a problem with a client over the sound of 40-something chattering children. It means that when you go do go out to dinner, you might instinctively find yourself scrutinizing the prices on the menu, calculating their profit margins and assessing their average daily sales. All while you quietly sip your soup. It’s hard sometimes.

Sometimes, you may wake up in the morning and think that it may be better if it could all just stop – thinking that maybe you should be like everyone else, just to avoid the disparity and gain some sense of ‘belonging’. But in times like this, just ask yourself – “Belonging to what?” Belonging to a mundane, close minded, innovative-less,  limit-full existence where all of your edges and lines and aspirations can be neatly starched, ironed and folded and packed up into a box and placed on society’s ‘OK’ shelf… is that really a perfect destiny?

No. It’s not. Maybe it’s perfect for 99 percent of the people who surround you. But you’re not a 99-percenter. Embrace your differences. What is good for the goose is not good for the gander. You have to determine who you are, and where you’re headed. You have to determine what works for you… and what doesn’t.

One of the most important aspects of being different is that the generic rules don’t apply to you. So when you need guidance, you are often hard pressed to create your own rules and guidelines. It’s part of the package. Yep – it can be a bit tricky sometimes.

But - don’t get discouraged. Look around you at all of the successful people -  no, I’m not talking about two cars, nice house in a nice neighbourhood, 8 to 4 job, be nice to the boss, white shirt, black tie, paycheck in every month, loan payment out every month normal-successful. I’m talking multi-million dollar corporation, flying around the world, hundreds of employees, ability to wear jeans and flip flops to a meeting (if you feel like it) mega-successful.

The mega-successful don’t play by the rules. They don’t conform to all of society’s norms. They don’t follow what everyone else is doing. They do their own things - in their own ways. They make decisions that work for them. They set goals for where they want to go. They think out of the box firstly because they aren’t standard issue, and can’t fit into the regular packaging… but mostly because they like to. But most importantly – they live their lives fulfilling their own destinies… not trying to conform.

Christine Beharry