Essentially, what Emerson is saying is don’t just follow the crowd. After all, if our business offering is essentially the same as that of all our competitors, all that’s left to compete on is price, and price is never a sustainable advantage.
Finding a USP with the emphasis on Unique is essential if we’re to be successful and profitable – provided, of course, that our USP is something your customers actually want and are willing to pay for.
By going where nobody else has gone before, we can establish a clear lead and have our competitors having to play “catch-up” to compete.
Of course, once we’ve established our lead, we can’t simply rest, but need to keep working on our offering to maintain that position: forging a new path is an ongoing process.
There is no record in any of Emerson’s work of this quote. And it is likely misappropriated. The quote IS in two of Muriel Strode’s books, one of which I own. “My Little Book of Prayer.” Copyright 1904. Perhaps men thought no woman could create a quote that good. Please change the author here.
Thanks for your observation. To be honest, the author is not germane to the post, and I don’t have the time to search Emerson’s works to verify what you say. He is widely credited with this, for whatever reason, and I don’t see the author as being important here: it’s about the sentiment of the quote.