There’s a recurring idea that surfaces in work and life:
“I can always do it again.”
“I can always find another opportunity.”
“I can always move.”
“There’s always another one.”
And most of the time, that’s true.
In a world optimized for scale, most things are copies. Versions of versions. You start to recognize patterns. A pitch sounds familiar. A product looks like a slightly better version of something you’ve already seen. There are differences, sure, but at the core, most things repeat.
Because humans are mimetic, you can see these companies and ideas play out in almost identical ways with slightly different branding. We fall easily into sameness. That’s why you can walk through the world and see so much of the same. Branding becomes important in so many products because under the hood the product is the virtually the same as the last thing.
Not always, but often.
But every once in a while, something cuts through that repetition. It’s not just rare. It’s not just better. It’s not just new.
It’s one of one.
One of one might not be better but it probably is very unique. If it is better because it is unique, and in ways that are not trivial, that’s a powerful combination. Those types of things happened because of the right combination of timing, people, energy, and something else you can’t explain. A spark. The right team. The right culture. The right moment. Sometimes you don’t even know why, you just know you’re in its presence. It’s a strange intangible thing you feel more than see. It’s also easily dismissed because generally, so few people get to experience it, so few of us knows what it looks like when it’s happening. Depending on where you grew up, it’s also even potentially something social circles do not view its presence as even possible. They arrive as narrative violations dismissible because the pattern is a deviation.
I’ve come to admire the people who know how to recognize that. It is certainly a trait I’d hope to mimic.
There are people who have developed a kind of taste, not for what’s popular or well-packaged, but for what’s real and truly unique. They don’t chase everything. They’re not trying to be everywhere. They wait for what matters. And when it shows up, they commit. Fully.
Over the holidays, Jami made a piece of art for a friend. She told me it was one of the few pieces she’s done that will never be repeated. No copy. No signature. It exists once and only once. For some reason, that hit me while I was sitting in the living room staring at it, waiting to take it to its new home.
Most opportunities in life are replaceable. That’s not a bad thing. It gives us the freedom to try, to fail, to move on.
But some things aren’t. Some people, some companies, some moments… Are not just another version of something else.
They’re the version.
The only one.