Standing Out Quotes

Ain't no man can avoid being average, but there ain't no man got to be common.

It is a blessed thing that in every age some one has had the individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions.

I was the tallest guy in the school, and I was very conscious of being larger than anybody - classmates and teachers.

I have to be ahead of myself so I don't just fit into the realm of everybody who sounds like me.

Back home I had always been comfortable around people. I was the troublemaker, always being funny - that's just who I am. I'm Latina; I've always had that extra little flavor. But when I got to New York, it became about being comfortable with myself in a place where I didn't know many people, and that was the big challenge. Ultimately my personality helped me build relationships with the people I was working with, and I was able to stand out.

I've never been very good at fitting into boxes.

I'm going to do everything I can to keep from being mainstream.

I think, my entire life, I was a bit different. And I didn't think I was different; I just kinda always stuck out.

There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.

I cannot keep quiet even when I am a lone voice.

I wasn't intentionally trying to be different, but that was an element of what I naturally do that happened to be unique enough to spark a curiosity for people.

When I was a kid, I had to try a lot of pyrotechnics just so people would know who I was.

COURAGE isn't an absence of fear. It is doing what you are afraid to do, letting go of the familiar and forging ahead into new territory. What I have discovered is that the best leaders have the courage to act - are willing to take the risk, make the statement, point the way, lead the way - when others hesitate out of fear. Effective leadership requires the ability to stand up, stand out, and the conviction to do it. I have never known a successful leader that was not courageous.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

One strategy for getting ahead is being incredibly good at a particular skill; you need to be world-class to stand out for that skill. In my case, I layered fairly average skills together until the combination became special.

I was an immigrant when I came, and one of my biggest things was I really wanted to fit in. I didn't want to be, 'Oh, look at that guy;' I wanted to be part of the crowd. Which is a weird thing, because the more successful I got, the more out of the crowd I became.

For nonconformity the world will whip you with its displeasure.

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.

I didn't want to be a loser, but I didn't want to fit in at the same time because I don't like just being ordinary. So it's one of those situations where I always kept my head up.

If you are a new, upcoming designer, you've got to think of new, cool ways to make the industry look at you. Don't just get stuck in a rut, show your clothes, and be like, 'You should like this.'

I don't want to be a copy of anyone else.

Courage doesn't come by doing what everybody else says. Courage does by what you know is right.

It was not always easy because I was always an individual and found it difficult to be one of a group. One person who was very supportive was my father. My mother was great but my father really recognised my individuality and supported me in that.

It's the orders you disobey that make you famous.

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.