Success stories know no limits

Beltway diary:It is not acceptable for us to say a problem is too big too solve, or a sector is too saturated, or that vast geographical mass and mind-blowing competition are reasons not to engage

It is 3am. There is little point in going to sleep as I will leave for the airport in two hours. I have learnt to make use of every minute because, as I have criss-crossed this enormous country, I have lost and gained more hours than I care to remember.

In the last three weeks I have rocketed between New York, San Francisco, Phoenix, Washington and here to Seattle with a 36-hour trip back to Ireland thrown into the mix.

It is not until you travel here that you truly understand the enormity of the US, and the dazzling diversity and incomprehensible choice that comes with it.

At first glance, such an environment is daunting for a fledging organisation to survive, grow and succeed or a small voice to be heard and, yet, we know it happens. The question is how?

Well, from my oversimplified standpoint it seems to be all about standing out and, whether a politician, business person, academic or social entrepreneur, the same rule applies.

While choice can be wonderful, according to Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice , "unlimited choice" can "produce genuine suffering".

Tell me about it! Last week, dying of a head cold - hardly surprising considering all the air miles - I headed for Walgreens to find salvation.

Faced with mile-long aisles packed several feet high with every imaginable concoction of cold and flu medicine, I froze, mouth flapping, unable to choose. Eventually, I grabbed the brightest and most dangerous looking box with the biggest writing and fled! So the moral of the story - packaging and presentation are paramount!

Would Starbucks or Ryanair have been the success stories they are in the 1960s? Would the hit show 24 have inspired such ground-swelling popularity had it not been able to capitalise and tap into the collective national psyche of post 9/11?

This also explains the explosive success of one of the most famous ice-cream brands in the world - Ben and Jerry's. I mean it is still only ice-cream but it's amazing what a round carton, funky packaging and daft names can do for a bottom line.

Up here in Seattle, standing out is all about flying fish and the power of people. Visitors from all over the world flock to see the infamous fishmongers of Seattle Pike Place Fish market throwing fish around, having fun with customers while making a fortune at the same time.

The company has been so successful it is used as a case study in business schools and universities. It has produced four books, along with best-selling training DVDs. Who would have thought it - fishmongers defining organisational success just because they are different.

Yesterday, Miles Hilton Barber, my travelling companion from Around the World in 80 Ways, called to say he reached Australia after flying a microlight from London to Sydney. He is blind. Now one of the world's best-paid speakers, Miles has proved that being different is his greatest asset and key to his success.

Isn't it strange that we spend so much of our life trying to be the same as everyone else and yet the true success stories are defined by those few who break the mould, stand out and are only blind to limits.

This philosophy enabled one of the world's most successful social entrepreneurs, John Wood, to leave his highly-successful career in Microsoft and establish Room to Read whose mission is to provide educational access to 10 million children in the developing world. Only six years since its inception, the organisation has been able to impact on the lives of over 1.2 million children by constructing 287 schools and establishing over 3,600 libraries.

It is, therefore, not acceptable for us to say a problem is too big too solve, or a sector is too saturated, or that vast geographical mass and mind-blowing competition are reasons not to engage. That is just too easy a get-out clause. If we believed that we would never have put a man on the moon or be eating an ice-cream called Chunky Monkey or attempting to eliminate poverty.

It is possible; it is just how you go about it. But be warned: before you go flinging fish in the air, you at least have to believe they can fly! eisenhower@theaislingfoundation.org