Brian Gubernick explores uniqueness bias, the false belief that your business challenges are fundamentally different from everyone else's. This bias makes entrepreneurs ignore proven strategies and skip mentorship. The fix: focus on patterns of success, test proven methods in your context, and find mentors who've solved similar problems.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Be honest with yourself. Do you think that your business is one of a kind? Do you think that no one else is facing similar challenges to you. Most entrepreneurs in their 30s and 40s and 50s, they fall into this trap. They fall into this trap that they believe their situation, their struggles, their ideas are more unique than they actually are. And this is known as the uniqueness bias. This feels so true, but it's often false. And it really matters that we understand this if we want to grow and prosper. See, I was just reading about this uniqueness bias in the Harvard Business Review, and it made me reflect on how I approach business. And I know a lot of the time I think, man, this is a unique scenario, or what I'm doing, what I'm facing, there's no one else that's really dealing with this sort of thing. And that's just— it's impossible. It really truly is. And most entrepreneurs early in their career and late in their career, they fall into this trap. Again, the trap being that they believe their situation and their struggles and even their ideas are more unique than they really are. Entrepreneurs tend to believe that their product and their approach or their challenges are, are just different from the competitors. I mean, that's part of building a business, is that you're aiming to create something that is unique. You're aiming to provide a service that's different. You're aiming to create a product that, that's unique and is going to catch someone's eye. You're, you're struggling to find approaches that are different than your competition, and in doing so, you know, carving out a space or a market that others aren't playing in. We start to assume that common strategies won't work for us because our scenarios are different. And this bias that I'm describing, it leads to avoidable mistakes. It leads to ignoring best practices and even rejecting mentorship. If you've seen this, like, with your peers, or you look in the mirror and you see it play out for you, it's— it looks like you resisting proven strategies because you think that maybe you're the exception. But almost every single time, you're not. You're not an exception. You're just not. The math wouldn't support that. There's just too many experiences, too many businesses, too many entrepreneurs on similar journeys. Now, why do we feel this way a lot? Well, because entrepreneurship is actually a lonely journey, right? Like, yes, we're all on this path, but sometimes, you know, if— and many in the No Days Off Nation, you know exactly what I'm talking about here. There's so many people, you know, looking to build big businesses, but you kind of live in your own head, you know, and sometimes your family doesn't understand or your peers don't understand. It feels like You're on your own from time to time, even though there's hundreds, if not thousands of people around you on a like journey, different business or different service, but like journey. And so we start to think that our situation is unique, but it's just not true. It just isn't. This can really cost us. This uniqueness bias can cost us. It could hurt our business. I think number one, you could easily start to ignore what works. If you think you're completely different, you might dismiss strategies that have helped others scale their business. I think you can waste time reinventing the wheel because you think your situation's unique. So instead of adapting, say, proven models, you try to create everything from scratch. And when you try to create everything from scratch, you ultimately slow your growth. And then lastly, I think the cost of this uniqueness bias, and I kind of alluded to it earlier, you miss out on mentorship and you miss out on learning. 'Cause if you think that no one understands your situation, you have a tendency not to seek advice from those that have been there before. So my question for everyone listening here today, where in your business do you assume that you're different? Where in your business right now do you think you're different? But you might actually be making things harder than they need to be as a result of this. So where in your business do you think you're different? And is it possible you're making things harder for yourself than they need to be? I think we have to flip the script on this. I think instead of leaning into this uniqueness bias and unintentionally hurting our business, I think there's things we could do instead of that. I think we've got to shift our mindset a bit to overcome this uniqueness bias. I think you got to find patterns, not exceptions. Instead of looking for the exceptions, find the pattern. So instead of focus— instead of focusing on maybe what makes your situation or your business unique, focus on the patterns of success from others and see what you can apply there. I think you also have to embrace best practices before you dismiss them. So, back off a little bit, cool it down a little bit, and, and ask, how could this work in my world? How could I apply this to my business? How could I embrace this practice and give it a shot? So, before saying, this won't work for me, let's put a toe in the water and test it out first. And then to go back to that mentorship mention, seek out mentors who have, who have scaled, because the reality is someone else has solved your problem, or at least a very, very, very close or similar problem to what you're facing. So learn from them instead of trying to figure it out the hard way. The hard way costs you money, it costs you time. So here's what I would challenge you to do today, okay? My challenge for you is to self-reflect a bit. What's one area where you've resisted a best practice because you thought your business was different? Are you sure you're the exception, or are you maybe stuck in this uniqueness trap? So what's one area where you've resisted a best practice because you thought your business was different? I want you to jot that down today, and I want you to ask, am I really the exception here, or am I just stuck in this uniqueness bias? If you're serious about growth, and I know you are because you're listening to our podcast where we're aiming to get better every single day, if you're serious about growth, surround yourself with people who challenge your thinking. They may not have the exact same challenge. Right? No two problems are going to be exactly the same. There is a little bit of difference from time to time, but someone's been there before you. Let's expedite our growth and our success. Let's expedite this process together by instead of defaulting to our uniqueness bias, let's embrace that others may have been there before us. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
