You might be in a category of one, but you probably aren’t.

You might be the only business that people in your city can turn to for a home meal delivery subscription, but you probably aren’t. You might be the only lawyer, or copy writer, or plumber, but you probably aren’t.

The next trick you might use to delude yourself that in a category of one is by claiming an intersection. The intersection of law and copy writing, or copy writing and plumbing. You might be the only lawyer who does copy write law, but you probably aren’t. You might be the only copy writer who writes for plumbers, but you probably aren’t.

And then perhaps the most common delusion; that you’re the best one. Sure, somebody, somewhere in the world is actually the best copy writer, but I don’t know how you’d measure that, and it’s still probably not you. Way more likely is that you’re just really good. Like, really good. But that’s not a category of one. The guy down the street is really good too. Around 90% of startups fail, or put another way, anyone who isn’t really good goes out of business fast, and so if your competition is still in business, they’re as good as you claim to be.

Let’s acknowledge the handful of massive tech monopolies that are actually, in essence, in a category of one. These exceptions exist. The entire VC industry is built around finding them. And let’s also be honest that you probably aren’t one.

Ok great, so we accept that we aren’t in a category of one, and that any claim we make to that effect we to ourselves is delusionary, and any claim we make to that effect to our customers is transparent. What’s the effect?

The effect is that your customer can get your unique, fancy-pants, super-special service from almost anyone, and that’s a problem because if they’re all good, and customers can get it from anyone, then customers will just take the cheapest one. Sort by price, filter by star rating, choose the cheapest 4.8 star option… because it’s all the same.

An alternative is make the customer feel something. To use your product or service not as an end but as a means, a means to deliver a remarkable experience, and the word will spread, and people will come back for more. Not because of what you sell, but because of how you make them feel.