Walt Disney coined a phrase–“Plus it.” Whenever a team at Disney was sure a ride or a film or a project was done, he’d push them to plus it and make it even better. It was his way of asking, “How could we go even further?”
When I was a high school freshman, I was in the group that made our homecoming float. We were sure our lifelike statue of the bulldog (our mascot) chopping down the redwood tree (the opponent’s mascot) was going to win and prove that the freshmen were to be taken seriously. And when we saw the other floats, we thought we had it in the bag. None of them looked nearly as cool as ours did.
Until we saw the sophomores fire up their mock saw mill that shot smoke and wood chips out of the fake log like it was actually being sawed. I’m not even sure how they did it. But it got everyone’s attention and they won. The sophomores’ float actually did something other than just sit there. They plussed; we didn’t.
Whatever you’re doing, try plussing it when you can. Taking it just a little bit further is a sure way to stand out (and maybe even make your homecoming float a winner).