Are You an Innovator or an Imitator
How to tell …
The other day, a talented young writer I know sent me samples of a package to look at. He wanted to know what I thought of his piece. It was his first important writing assignment and he was trying to make a good impression and wanted my opinion.
Unfortunately, he had made some key errors that could prove to undermine his long-term success.
The biggest was borrowing the headline of one of my winning promotions along with a number of key concepts from others.
When I asked him about it, he said that he really liked the approach and wanted to use it as his own. Since he wanted to write like me, he thought that would be the best way to get started.
After all, in my books and articles, I often talk about modeling somebody’s work. That’s why he thought it was a good idea.
In fact, that’s how I started out: modeling other people’s work. Modeling, yes. Imitating, no.
In order to get to the next level, my friend, you need to understand the difference between the concepts of modeling and imitating. That way the work you submit will always be seen as original and not as a rehash of what someone else has done.
Let me explain …
