We are Imperfect Mirrors

You know that song you love that you wish you’d written? Copy it.

You know that existing business that you wish you had thought of? Copy it.

Why? Because we’re imperfect mirrors.

Like a funhouse mirror that distorts what it reflects, your imitation will turn out much different from the original. Maybe even better.

When a musician covers someone else’s song, they reveal their own warped perspective, since we know what the original sounds like. Because of this, performing a cover song is actually a great way to define who you are as an artist.

When a musician writes a new song that imitates someone else’s song, almost nobody notices the similarity. People don’t make the connection unless you tell them the source of its inspiration.

So an entrepreneur can imitate someone else’s business, and still be adding a great service to the world.

I’ve never believed that everything I did had to be 100 percent original. I used to pitch to many different dream companies for a job, and I stole job hunting ideas from many different sources. Tens of portfolios of projects I had created, hundreds of resumes I had crafted, and thousands of lines of code I had written; I stole from family, friends, role models, or internet forums like Stack Overflow. That’s how I land my dream jobs again and again.

Even nowadays I’m operating my own media company, I imitate any marketing ideas that make sense to me. I don’t care if it originates from a marketing genius I worship or a dumbass I hate. If a dumbass has a genius idea I cannot come up with, I’ll admit to myself I’m more stupid than the dumbass.

I don’t have any pride in the originality of my ideas; I’m proud of the creation that comes afterward.

So look around at those existing ideas in the world. You can imitate them and still be offering something valuable and unique.

Imitate. We are imperfect mirrors.

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Read the next chapter: Software Daily is the Gateway to Engineering Knowledge

Or table of contents: Anything You Want (My Version)