Competitive Paralysis

[RogueInnovation]

So, you start out in biz with a decent idea, and a few ideas on how to create your business, and a mountain of doubt. The usual reaction to all of those details is to at least partially shut down and scrutinise your own biz trying to make it competitor proof.

The typical advice is "yes, people will ship the same ideas as you, especially if it is proving it has traction, so you need to execute better than everyone else and scale fast by bringing on some good partners. Once you have this learn to distinguish yourself by providing the best solution"

And the typical reaction is "ah, man, I can't scale that fast, I'll get robbed of everything", and so you then just work on your business for a while trying to corner a distinguishable advantage while trying to get comfortable with the fast pace execution that might eventually be required for your business in the end.

Thats all good advice and works well enough so long as your competitors don't launch first and more prepared and mop up all the opportunity you were looking at.
However I think that it really plays to your paranoia as a newb, because imo, competition is ACTUALLY relatively static (more experienced guys just infer this or skip over it).

There is another important point that I feel is neglected.

Competetive paralysis:

Ok, so here is my little addition to the more general wisdom displayed above.
"People never change"

The main way to gain a competetive advantage is just to recognise obstinancy in your competitors. Don't make them see the market YOUR way. Their own obstinancy will make them do the same thing they always do. And like magic you will be left to your own devices.

Don't SHUT DOWN your idea, just don't encourage competitors to change (unless they really really want to of course).

Eventually:
Eventually, when you are better with business I think that worrying about competitors even to the extent above is silly, because you should want to change the direction of things a bit, however when you truly want to change others directions, you should put your hand into a b2b service that does just that (helping them gain those efficiencies or liscencing).



Basically my message is, "no one cares". But if I said that you would know I wasn't right because people DO care and DO steal.
So my message is "let them stay the same", "launch YOUR IDEA" fast, "don't attatch bucketloads of certainty to your idea" (it'll slow you down and encourage cheapshots), "encourage people to be the same as they ALWAYS are", and "don't get competetive paralysis".

Just let people do what they always do
And give customers professional guidance where you can.
DON'T ever freak out.
DON'T blurt.
And burden your own project.
If someone launches before you, pivot!

 

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