Are you invisible or are you remarkable?

I was struck by what Newark Mayor Cory Booker says about people, "Everyone is born an original, sadly most die copies. You were born unique. Don’t let the world defeat you or seduce you into mediocrity. We are stars… if we don’t live life brilliantly, we won’t leave a legacy of light and illumination."

To paraphrase, We are "remarkable" at birth, one of a kind, unique, special, but we are "invisible" when we die - despite us being unique, we live an average life - you know somewhere in the middle of everything and anything - nothing notable with which to be remembered for. Our life is nothing more than a statistic - 8.67 hours a day of sleep, 1.25 hours a day of eating and drinking, 1.79 hours of household activity, 7.82 hours working, 3.66 hours watching television and 0.75 hours of telephone calls, mail, and e-mail.

But that's not what we were created for, all of us have the capacity in us to leave a lasting legacy in this world.

We also have the desire to be remarkable. Marketing guru Seth Godin believes that our present generation is living at a time of such great opportunity to leverage on innovations to be someone unique and potentially remarkable. He says, "If you want to lead, pick yourself." Where as in the past, you needed to be picked to stand out, now you don't need to be picked by an institution, an organization or a club to stand out, you can choose to do so yourself.

Do you know that you can publish your own e-book on Amazon yourself? You don't need to go to a publisher to get your ideas printed, you don't need to go to the newspapers to get your ideas heard...all you need is a computer and a web processor. Don't feel like writing? Get a web cam and you can broadcast yourself on YouTube.

He goes on to say, "Many of our companies make average stuff for average people, but average doesn’t work. A company created the idea of packaging three socks together so 12 year old girls could wear mismatched socks. Their whole marketing strategy was for a girl to say to a friend, “Wanna see my socks?” Last year they did $40 million in revenue."

What has three socks gotta to do with being remarkable? Well, by wearing a mismatched pair, 12 year old girls have the opportunity to stand out, instead of being invisible.

With the dawn of the industrial revolution we saw an age that does not value diversity, in fact it was Henry Ford who said, "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black." And as a result, we have been raised in a society that predisposes us to be invisible...but despite this reality and because of our capacity and desire to be remarkable, we are able to find our own ways (like the 12 year old girls who wear mismatched socks) to be seen.

Don't be just a statistic, don't die a copy...be what you were created to be, one of a kind, unique, special - be seen, even if people don't pick you - pick yourself, be heard, be remarkable not invisible and make a difference in the world.