You might well have heard of Peter Thiel. He was one of the founders of Paypal, was the first outside investor in Facebook and made a bunch of other successful early stage investments.

He has a question he asks of businesses he's thinking of investing in:

“Tell me something that's true, that almost nobody agrees with you on”.

According to Thiel, it tests for originality of thinking and the courage to say something the interviewer might disagree with.

I think it's a great question to ask yourself too. It can really highlight how you're different to your competitors.

What you do can be copied fairly easily. Skills can be developed. But beliefs are deep seated.

What you believe about your your industry, your clients and your competitors sets the frame for how you run your business. It makes you, you.

I spent some time recently thinking about what I believe about marketing that most others in my field don't. Here's what I came up with:

1. I believe that great marketing is simple marketing. It doesn't have to be super complicated and convoluted to work.

2. I believe that ethical marketing can work. That being nice, being generous with your time, giving value in advance instead of holding back can deliver results.

3. I believe you don't have to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to be successful. You can fit good marketing into 1 day a week. And you can have a good life outside of business.

4. I believe that giving value in advance and nurturing relationships until people are ready to buy leads to a stronger, more sustainable business that trying to cash in with short term promotions and product launches.

5. I believe you can (and should) build strong personal relationships online through email, video, interactions in groups. Relationship building doesn't have to be face to face.

6. I believe that online marketing offers the biggest opportunity there has ever been for small and solo businesses to win out over large competitors, if they can master it.

There's probably nothing too controversial in there. But taken together it's a different way of doing business to most.

I know many people who don't really believe online works for consulting and coaching. I know many online businesses who focus on launches and affiliate marketing and getting as much cash in to their coffers in as short a time as possible.

And I know far too many people who have given up their social and family lives in the pursuit of business success.

What you believe helps you stand out.

What do you believe that's different?

No need to tell me. Write it down. More importantly, live it.