“You find out that life is just a game of inches.”

We live in a world of plenty. Any side you look, there’s excess, an overload of everything—content, ideas, software, products, marketing campaigns—and things ain’t going to change anytime soon. We’re only going to find ourselves deeper in the avalanche.

In the corporate and, in particular, the startup world, we’re going to have dozens of companies doing exactly the same thing, and fighting for attention and loyalty from the same universe of customers.

How then does one differentiate oneself? Features, pricing, and such are good differentiators, but they are so easily replicable. One can pull off a fabulous marketing or branding campaign with a unique spin, but there is nothing to stop another company from coming by and executing a very similar one and drawing attention away.

The only thing that cannot be replicated—experience.

The way you make your customers, clients, partners, and employees feel will define what they think of you. The experience you provide can drive up business and foster loyalty.

Ever since I began working with customers—first as a pre-sales professional and then as a marketer—I have strived to provide my customers with a ‘first class experience’, as we see in the airline parlance. With a first class flying experience, it is so much more than just the plush seats, the special food, and the luxurious amenities…it is the attention to detail, the fact that the airline goes beyond what you’d expect of them, to give you an experience you’d cherish.

Essentially, airlines go the extra inch.

Similarly, for any product you create, service you provide, or campaign you execute, it is important to go that extra inch, cover the ground you’re not expected to cover, and deliver something that’s truly exceptional.

Because that one more inch is the difference between winning and losing.

This idea of the “one inch” is conveyed so powerfully and beautifully in a speech that Al Pacino’s character, Tony D'Amato, gives in the movie Any Given Sunday.

This speech has been an inspiration for me ever since I first watched it in 2008. It is something I share with every teammate of mine, and something I go back to whenever I am in need of motivation and inspiration to overcome hardship.

If there’s one video clip I had to pick from the billions of videos on the internet, this would be it. It is powerful, entertaining, inspiring, motivating, and delivers a message I live by. 

I hope you all enjoy it and learn from it too.