A proof - if one were needed -- that it's better to be thought unique than to loudly and self-importantly declare your unique-ness. Informational asymmetry ensures that the reader is aware of patterns that you (including even your parents and friends) might not know of, and it's impossible to do anything but hurt your chances. The AdComms will thank me for this one.

1. On Laziness in Rhetoric &
Thought:
The difference between “unique” and
“individuality”

2. Proof, if it were needed, of why not to anoint
yourself “Unique” in your Prestige MBA Application
• Combine etymological analysis with
• Some reader response theory
…and you’ll agree for yourself:
best not to proclaim your unique-ness

3. Etymological Analysis
• Latin (unus, one; unicus, one of a kind)
via 17th century French —(MBA Moralist’s Salad days in service to the King!)—
and thence into modern English
• Slackers in the 19th century expanded it to include “remarkable, uncommon”
• Practically speaking, the range is from “peerlessly alone” to “rather rare” to, at
best, “rare, remarkable, uncommon”
• No doubt, it’s the “rare” the sense in which applicants, with no small self-
importance, declare themselves to be unique

4. Audience Analysis
• Individual AdComms readers – and the AdComm office as a whole – have, shall
we say, a large sample size.
• Compared to your sample size, even including your friends, clearly it’s a case
of informational asymmetry
• The AdComm reader is privileged to know that even among “the quality” of
the talent pool, there are patterns – many of which are not even subtle.

5. Takeaway:
It Depends Upon Who’s Applying the Label
• Unique is in the eye of the beholder.
• Unbecoming is the behavior of self-important declarations that serve no point
(beyond enthusiasm: YAWN!) other than to confirm that while aiming for the
big leagues, you’re not even aware of the depth of the talent pool you’re
competing against.
• Better it be said of you than by you.

6. Takeaway:
It Depends Upon Who’s Applying the Label (II)
• Your candidacy is helped when the reader, in an unguarded
moment of relaxed standards/vigil, thinks inwardly “unique”
• Better yet: let them think to themselves:
• “honest”
• “leveling with me” &
• “organic growth & motivations”
• Your candidacy is NOT helped when you confirm our suspicions that
you’re more than a little narcissistic.

7. Q.E.D. (Quod Est Demonstratum)
So Now What?
• All is not lost
• You may feel deflated but there is a silver lining.
• You may not be unique –
but you are indisputably and irreducibly an individual

8. You’re a Person, Not A Product.
Apply as One – that Individual, You.
• You may not be unique –
but you are indisputably and irreducibly an individual
• Have the courage to orient your candidacy around that truth and you’ll find
that the entire process is not only less painful and more productive, it yields
better results!

9. Want more?
www.MBAmoralist.com