Copy till you drop

I both love and hate reading about successful companies and what it takes to make it. Basically most of the popular press writes variations around a theme – it’s the old tale of geek made good. What they don’t tell you is that for every geek that makes it there are tens of thousands whose grand dreams go splat like bugs on the windshield of the real world.

If you are in business, these successful people are not role models – they are statistical anomalies. Face it, if you were one of those people you would know it. Here’s the good news, success in business is about identifying good ideas and most importantly acting on it. For every ten thousand people who talk a good game there’s maybe a single person who will go out and do something about it.

Zuckerberg didn’t invent social media. Bezos didn’t invent the book club. Apple didn’t invent the MP3 player. The guy came up with eBay didn’t invent auctions. But they did make them better and by doing so built a big customer base.

There’s an old saying – Pioneers end up with arrows in their backs, the second generation break even and the third generation make a profit.

If you read your local newspaper you will find a lot of articles about how a feisty and young company is redefining the way a business is done. It could be music recording, roasting coffee or selling real estate. It makes nice news copy and readers like it as they like to see that someone is having a go.

The old hands in business, however, let new startups go through the pain of pioneering a new way of doing business. If you actually succeed, then they are going to come in with more money, people and experience, and leverage their existing brand to take you on. Hey, you might well win, but I’d stake good money on them doing better on average.

Your competitors will be watching you at every turn and matching what you do and trying to one up you all the time. Over time I have really come to appreciate the old saying that you need good competition to improve yourself.

If you have a fantastic idea, unless you have millions to spend on protecting every aspect of IP in every nation on the planet, you cannot protect your idea from being copied.  Even then you will spend all your time in court defending your IP and not building your business. Plus it is almost guaranteed that in some way you are infringing someone else’s IP and they will patiently wait for you to be very successful before they sue.

From a startup point of view, I’d say to you to have a good look at what is working and what is not. For example, a lot of people think they can do online coupons in a better way than Groupon – some of them will succeed.

When you next have someone at a dinner party telling you that they want to come up with the next Facebook, just smile and tell them you are thinking of getting into Real Estate or selling cars.

Let somebody else prove that a market exists, establish pricing and legal precedent and then follow in their slipstream. Never be ashamed from taking inspiration from a good idea.