Gurpal, a man who has seen better days in his life, taught me something invaluable a few days back. He runs age-old hardware and sanitary store near my place. On his counter table, you will find door handles and stoppers, locks of different sizes with their respective keys, and some other fast-moving products. Though his stock always remains covered in multiple layers of dust, his display items are always shining. I went to his shop to buy a plastic tap as the old one started leaking that morning. Before me, there was this old plumber standing, who came to buy a new lock set for his bicycle. He got what he wanted, paid the money, wiped the sweat appearing over his brow, and went away.
After a couple of minutes, when I was still looking at the various taps, he came back complaining that he can open this new lock with his old keys. Gurpal smiled as he explained " That's the problem with these cheap products. They are not unique. If you buy the branded lock sets, which of course a bit costly, you will not be able to access it with any other key. They have thousands of unique dyes, unlike the cheaper ones. They have only a dozen dyes and they are often repeated."
You know what, Bruce Lee once said "Life is the greatest teacher if you are willing to learn."
And Gurpal taught me a great lesson that day.
Cheap goods are actually cheap because they lack uniqueness.
If you consider The Almighty or the creator as the owner of a big manufacturing plant, you may notice that his (or her) each and every product is unique in itself. Either the dye is unique or the raw material composition is different. Either the colour is different or the size is different. Some are soft and some are hard. Some are rigid and some are flexible. Whatever the difference is, each and every product is unique in itself. Period.
As a product category, we humans are the most complex category the creator has made. We can solve algebra problems and can make as well as repair complex machinery. We have this component called the brain attached above us, but most of the time we use it to criticize ourselves. We shut our minds and shut our eyes, and we blindly follow the road our cousin walked on. Why? Because he got admission into IIT and now has a seven-figure salary package. We read about all the top-notch business tycoons to replicate what they do when they were young. But, my friend, we don't understand that we are made in a plant with a unique composition, hence, we have a unique application.
When you understand the fact that you are unique, you actually start feeling a different kind of freedom. You start realizing that things like competition and jealousy have no such use in your daily life. Your never-ending 'FOMO' will disappear in thin air. You will be accountable to no one. You will be answerable to no one. That's the beauty of the feeling of uniqueness... If you can feel it.
Getting back to the story, the old plumber bought another lock of the same cheap brand, this time making sure his old key doesn't fit in his new lock.
