get paid for doing it. Work at its smartest means doing that work that no one else could do. That's a pretty high bar. Becoming aware of what one can do well that others cannot is an immense challenge. In most cases, it takes our whole lives to discover this. This awareness arrives only through deliberate practice and with the help of others, but the payoff is equally immense. When you are doing something well that others want, and you are the only one who can do it, you will be uncommonly rewarded. This is true of the famously successful, but also of small-scale success as well. You can do bookkeeping, pizza delivery, pet grooming, goat dairy farming, chemistry research, and high school teaching with unique excellence. And yes, there is plenty of room in the world for everyone's job to be a little different. The hardest part of this discovery is steering yourself away from imitating those who have already succeeded, in order to discover what your own excellence. I think my experience may offer one useful tip in this process. When others are doing something like you are, let that activity go because that means you don't have to do it! If they are stealing your ideas, ripping off your moves, knocking off your style, and they are doing it well, thank them. You've just learned that that assignment is something you don't need to do because someone else can do it. This is scary because you are