Ugo Betti did when he wrote “When I say ‘I’, I mean a thing absolutely unique, not to be confused with any other."



Not only were you born an original, but if we take into consideration and add to the package your habits, and tastes, and idiosyncrasies, and adventures, and experiences, and talents-skills-&-abilities, and … etc., we uncover a unique individual. You are THE ONLY YOU, the one and only, not just presently, but since the dawn of time.

Out of the billions of people* that have come and gone, there is not and has never been, another you. And there never will be, even if we could travel in time to the year 50,000. That makes you, and me, and each of us, SPECIAL. Unique, and special. That’s what Wally Amos wrote in Watermelon Magic: “Each of us is unique and special. No two sets of fingerprints are the same. So enjoy and appreciate your uniqueness. You are a priceless collector’s item."

That’s what you are; a collector’s item, an original masterpiece, NOT a paint-by-number reproduction, not a “copy." So please, I implore you, don’t die a copy, and don’t live like one in the interval.

Trust me on this one, I know it’s hard to march to your own music, do your own thing your own way, but you must do your very best to do so! It’s your assignment here on planet Earth. As Zig Ziglar wrote, “You are the only one who can use your talents and abilities; it is an awesome responsibility."

On this topic, e.e. Cummings wrote, “To be nobody but yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight,and never stop fighting.

In Julius Caesar, Marc Antony urged his contemporaries to “Keep your friends close to you. Keep your enemies even closer." For me, the worst enemy I have is the cookie-cutter, the tool used to make everything the same. As an author, a network marketer, and an internet marketer in a very competitive market, that same-old, same-old would spell “disaster." And as a person, that would spell “boring." I just can’t have that.

So, like Marc Antony, I keep my worst enemy really close. I have a cookie-cutter hanging from the ceiling over my worktable—when I write, it’s dangling in front of me, inches from my face. When I go out to places where I’ll interact with people, I take it with me, carrying it in my pocket so it’s always near. It is a constant reminder to not be like everybody else, but to be ME. To not conform, to not think, talk, shop or buy like everyone else. I love that question posed in a Jewish folk song; “If I am like someone else, who will be like me?"

Ralph Waldo Emerson sure agreed with this when he wrote; “Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous half-expression."

My reader friend, let me reiterate something Useful for U to keep in mind. It is a Universal truth on which all the biologists and psychologists agree Unanimously, and say to U in Unison: U, my friend, are Unique in the Universe! It’s a fact. Therefore, Uniqueness and originality are the order of the day, and Uniformity is out! U are not a Unidimensional being, but a multi-faceted one, with many Usable skills and talents. So Unite those gifts with your many creative thoughts and Use all U’ve got to come up with something special and unUsual. And U’ve got plenty. There’s no need for U to Usurp other people’s ideas, or try to emUlate them. Just be U!

I’d like to make a recommendation, if I may. I’ll use “we, us, our" so it’s not just for the reader, but for myself as well. Let our lives not be a painting-by-numbers, but let it be an Irises by Van Gogh, or maybe the label of a soup can by Andy Warhol. It doesn’t really matter, as long as it’s U-nique. Let our lives not be like generic elevator “musak," but let’s make sure it’s more like Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, Mozart’s Die Zauberflote, Pachelbel’s Canon in D, Dave Brubeck’s Take Five, or The Who’s Baba O’Riley,

Let’s create something that is U-nique. Let our passage on earth be a masterpiece so that when we leave here to go to the next realm, we can look back at our life and see an exquisite canvas in a big beautiful ornate frame and say “Wow! Would you look at that! That was ME! That was MY life! I did that. I painted that. Wasn’t I something?"

[* Since 40,000 BC—the dawn of modern man—an estimated 58 billion people have come and gone, according to a study by the Netherlands-based International Statistical Institute.]