What Makes You Stand Apart

I've had a few books sitting on my nightstand for months now, and I keep expecting I'll get back into reading. There was a time when I'd read regularly, getting pulled into dense topics, but that hasn't been happening lately.

My wife and I read to the kids, fall into our own routines, and by the time we get in bed, it's often later than we planned. Reading still matters to me, but if I'm being honest, I'm aspiring more than doing.

A few months ago, I came across something that fit my situation a little better. I heard a podcast where the host was reading short passages from a book, and something about that format immediately held my attention.

The book was Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly, and each page had quick, self-contained ideas about life. I could open it, read for a few minutes, and set it back down without feeling like I'd lost my place. It wasn't replacing the chapter books I aspire to get back to, but it felt right, for now.

A Quotable Idea

If nobody else does what you do, you won't need a resume.

After I took a picture of this to share on LinkedIn the next day, I put the book down to reflect on the concept. It resonated because it challenges traditional beliefs that optimizing our resume is critical to landing jobs. The idea suggests something different: that your value, when it’s truly distinct, speaks for itself.

And there is an appeal in that idea. The thought that your work creates demand for you, rather than relying on how well you craft a resume, resonates.

At the same time, resumes still exist for a reason. Even for highly capable candidates, there is usually a step where experience still has to be formally captured in the hiring process, no matter what level of position. That reality doesn't disappear simply because we'd prefer a different system.

So, yes, the resume still matters.

But the quote lands because the goal isn’t just to present your value... it’s to showcase value that stands apart.

Standing Apart

What’s easier to overlook is that there is already something inherently unique in what you’ve done. With 100% certainty, nobody else has lived through your specific combination of situations, decisions, and moments throughout your career.

The challenge is that most of it gets translated into the buzzwords of business. Trust me, I'm guilty of this too.

A few years ago, I was introduced to someone through a mutual connection. At one point in our first conversation, he mentioned a dream he'd had about moving his family from Chicago to Basalt, Colorado. It was a random detail, and he acknowledged that himself, but the way he described it stood out. He spoke vividly about the place with a passion that made it feel inevitable.

Some years passed, but we reconnected a few weeks ago, and I told him how much I remembered that story. He has since moved to a different part of Colorado, not Basalt, but that one moment stayed with me all these years later.

Because it revealed something that was uniquely him.

Stories Reveal What’s Unique

Stories work differently because they carry the details that only you have lived. The setup, the tension, the decision you made, the outcome you didn't expect. Instead of asking someone to accept a conclusion, stories let the audience arrive there on their own, through something vivid and passionate.

That’s what makes them powerful.

A More Personal Example

What makes those stories impactful isn’t just the way he tells them... it’s that the stories themselves are uniquely his.

And to my Dad's credit, I’ve realized that what people remember isn’t always tied to the scale of an experience, but to how clearly and fully it reflects the person telling it.

Develop Your Stories

The STAR method is a useful starting point, but the structure isn’t the goal. The goal is to uncover the moments that bring your experience to life. The ones where something was uncertain, where a decision mattered, where your actions shaped the outcome.

Those are the moments that reveal what makes you unique.

The resume still serves its purpose. But the person who stands out isn’t always the one with the strongest credentials. It’s the one whose experience feels distinct because they have the stories to share.