When you ask an average business audience to name the first person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic, most people know it was Charles Lindbergh.
当你让一个普通的商业观众说出第一个独自直飞大西洋的人的名字时，大多数人都知道他是查尔斯·林德伯格(Charles Lindbergh)。
Most can also name Amelia Earhart as the first woman to achieve that feat.
大多数人还可以说出阿米莉亚·埃尔哈特(Amelia Earhart)是第一位实现这一壮举的女性。
But silence usually prevails when people are asked to name the second or third aviator to do it.
但是，当人们被要求说出第二个或第三个飞行员的名字时，沉默通常会占上风。
The fact that the third person was Earhart reveals an important facet of human psychology, namely that we tend to remember people and things based on their category rather than as part of the broader whole.
第三个人是埃尔哈特的事实揭示了人类心理学的一个重要方面，即我们倾向于根据人和事物的类别而不是更广泛整体的一部分来记住他们。
If you are the first or the best, that tends to stick.
如果你是第一个或最好的，这往往是持久的。
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Consultants and professional service providers would do well to heed this lesson at a time when they’re swimming in an ever-expanding pond of similar firms.
当顾问和专业服务提供商在一个不断扩大的类似公司池塘中游泳时，他们会很好地听从这个教训。
There are an estimated 700,000 business consulting firms globally, and many of their services are fast becoming commodities.
据估计，全球约有70万家商业咨询公司，它们的许多服务正在迅速成为商品。
Whether it’s getting help on an audit or installing Salesforce, customers know they’re going to get similar types of people and services from the industry.
无论是获得审计帮助还是安装Salesforce，客户都知道他们将从行业获得类似类型的人员和服务。
Figure out what makes you special
找出是什么让你与众不同
Rather than keep fishing in these vast waters, expert service providers need to shrink their pond by honing in on what they do best.
与其继续在这些辽阔的水域捕鱼，专家服务提供商需要通过磨练他们最擅长的东西来缩小他们的池塘。
So you can’t be the best barbecue restaurant in town? Fine.
所以你不能成为镇上最好的烧烤餐厅？好吧。
But maybe instead of being the second or third best maybe you can position yourself as the premier dry-rib joint.
但也许你可以把自己定位为首屈一指的干肋骨关节，而不是第二或第三最好的。
Carving out a niche for your practice — whether you are self-employed or running a practice inside a bigger company — takes on even greater importance when you consider how technology has dispersed an industry’s clientele across the globe.
当你考虑到技术如何将行业客户分散到全球各地时，为你的业务开拓利基-无论你是个体经营者还是在更大的公司内经营业务-就变得更加重要。
It’s harder for these far-flung clients to differentiate between one provider and another.
对于这些遥远的客户来说，区分一个提供商和另一个提供商是比较困难的。
The way to cut through this absence of signal is to be the worldwide expert at one particular thing.
打破这种信号缺失的方法就是成为某一特定事物的世界性专家。
The simplest way to position yourself as a niche expert is to focus on your most successful case studies.
将自己定位为利基专家最简单的方法就是专注于最成功的案例研究。
Where have you achieved the best results and added the most value to clients?
您在哪些方面取得了最好的结果，并为客户带来了最大的价值？
Build on your successes to create a niche
在你的成功基础上创造一个利基
Your practice may have the ability to help any kind of management team, but perhaps, for instance, it’s worked closely with several mining companies and achieved strong improvements to their supply chain.
您的实践可能有能力帮助任何类型的管理团队，但也许，例如，它与几家矿业公司密切合作，并对其供应链进行了强有力的改进。
Backed by this record, maybe you should try to build a niche as the world’s only practice that helps mining sector COOs to drive down costs and control their supply chains.
在这一记录的支持下，也许你应该尝试建立一个利基市场，作为世界上唯一的做法，帮助采矿业首席运营官降低成本，控制他们的供应链。
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I know one law firm with a regulatory practice that was maybe good enough to make the top 200 firms in the country based on reputation.
我认识一家律师事务所，它的监管实践可能足以根据声誉跻身全国前200家律所之列。
But it happened to be based in Colorado and California where those states have legalized cannabis and hemp in recent years.
但它恰好位于科罗拉多州和加利福尼亚州，这两个州近年来已将大麻和大麻合法化。
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