If you want to stick, you have to be different

I was in the city last night and as I was walking around I noticed all of the different sounds and attractions taking place on every sidewalk and street corner. Every single street vendor and stand in the city has there own way of calling you over to them. The salvation army guy had his little bell, while the guy at the hotdog and pretzel stand banged his tongs the cart to cause attraction to himself. They are all different, even the countless people who offer to draw a cartoon picture of yourself, the guys who sell the bootleg DVDs or the people in chinatown who sell you bags and watches all day. The point is that they all have to be different for you to notice them and to remember them for next time if you so chose to go back to them. They will either follow you and tell you what they are selling, yell out prices at you, or call you over saying what they have and how it is a great deal. It is the people on the side of the street who just sit there and do not cause attraction that have the most trouble when tying to sell things. Take the people in central park or in the subways who all play music, how many of them do you actually remember? Probably not a lot because for the most part they are all the same. Granted some are at least entertaining and that makes them memorable, but otherwise you forget about most of them very quickly and easily because they are all the same. If you don't stand out then you re just another person in the city, nothing special. The people who we probably all remember, if you have ever seen them before, are the ones who dress up and paint themselves to look like statues and move and act one you give them money. I remember over the summer there was one person in Times Square who would walk behind people and mock how they walk and act if you put money into a bucket he had in front of him. I only remembered him because he stood out and was different. Granted there are many of them in the city but they all do different things. Also, notice how I remembered he was in Times Square too? It's because Times Square is the prime example of this blog post. The city is known for Times Square because there are always people there and there are constantly new attractions and things going on. Also, there are countless broadway shows being performed on a daily basis. All of this stuff makes it stand out and also the ultimate tourist attraction. This is because they do not want to see the quiet empty side streets, they want to see the action and the bright lights. After all isn't that why they came to the city in the first place? NYC is a big city and if you don't standout then you're not going to make it.