This article is more than 7 years old. Mastering the art of delivering an effective elevator pitch can make or break you as an entrepreneur.

If you say what everyone else does—only changing the fill-in-the-blanks — you’re forgettable. You have to amp up your individuality in order to be heard.

There's no shortage of lore about the importance of the elevator pitch. There's the 1850s version, in which inventor Elisha Otis's dramatic demonstration of his innovation--a safety brake that ...