Sell Your Difference: The Story of Building Better Roads
As start-ups and company builders, we have to fall in love with the problem we’re solving, not our answer to that problem.
There’s an old story about how a particularly awful road was formed.
A calf needed to cross a virgin forest to return to its pasture one day. Being an irrational animal, it forged out a tortuous path full of bends, up and down hills.
Next, a dog came by and used the same path, followed by a flock of sheep.
Finding the opening, some men began using the path, navigating the sharp turns, complaining, and cursing – and quite rightly so. But they did nothing to create a different alternative.
After repeated use, the path became a trail along which men drove ox and horses carrying heavy loads, going three hours to cover a distance that would usually take thirty minutes. Still, the path remained in use.
Many years passed, and the trail became the town’s main avenue. Everyone complained about the traffic because its route was the worst possible one.
“Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.” —Walter Lippmann.
Today too many of our companies are following in an irrational cows' footsteps. We are carefully following the well-beaten path because it has been done before.
This is the fastest way to mediocrity.
We’ve all seen the scenario play out: someone brilliant creates something, and they have no idea what to do with that something. They find – or are pulled – into a market because there’s already a line item for that specific piece of technology in a customer’s budget.
They are now totally married to the solution without giving much thought to it. As start-ups and builders, we have to fall in love with the problem we’re solving, not our answer to that problem.
Don’t simply let your product get pulled into a competitive market or hire some PR firm to slap better, faster, or more innovative on the front of your marketing material. At that point, you will have anchored your story to your competitor, and they should start paying you an affiliate fee for all the free advertising you’re giving them.
Suppose we fail to design new categories for our companies to compete in. In that case, we will be forever stuck with someone else’s definition of the problem we solve, battling their prescribed solution and operating under the value they set for the outcome delivered.
Instead, find a unique customer problem you can solve that differentiates you from your competition and become THE company that solves that problem.
Make something different. Make people care. Make fans, not followers.
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