Human Crash Test Dummies

Not every idea is a good idea. Some are just plain stupid. Others need refining. But there are a few that are brilliant. They change culture. They shape history. They endure.

Most of the best ideas seem so obvious, they leave people asking themselves, “Why didn’t I think of that?” The truth is you might have thought of it first, and made the mistake of seeking the opinion of someone who told you it would never work, or you may have lacked the conviction to pursue it.

Take the history of flight for example, I’m sure it wasn’t too difficult to see a bird gracefully soaring through the sky and think; “It would be great if we could fly like that.” The next step is critical. There are some who would craft a pair of wings, attach feathers and jump off a cliff. They most likely died. They are what I like to call human crash test dummies. Their goal is to be first, at all costs. Others like DaVinci thought about it, but never strapped on a pair of wings.

In business, perception is more important than fact. You don’t have to be first to market to be successful, but you want to own mindshare. Let’s play a game. After the Wright Brothers’ historic flight, who broke their record? I don’t know either. OK, let’s try this one. What is the name of the world's leading aerospace company and the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft combined? Did you guess Boeing? Good.

I’m sure most people throughout time said, “We are not birds. We will never fly.” Fortunately they were wrong too. Some great ideas just need the right timing to be successful. Learn from the dummies that tried and failed. The Wright Brothers learned and even succeeded in their quest to fly. But the good news is their success was not the end. It was only the beginning.


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THE BOTTOM LINE:

Principal 1: Perception in the market is more important than being first.

Principal 2: There is a difference between a fad and a trend. Pursue the trend.

Principal 3: Market timing is critical to the success of your business. If you are too early or too late, you may fail even if the idea is good.

Gut Check

Self-doubt and fear prevent people from truly following their passion. The result is they settle for less and don’t rock the boat. It’s time to rock this boat.

When I moved to Colorado in 1995, my first purchase was a mountain bike. Apparently I had been inspired by Mountain Dew commercials. It was like going skiing for the first time and skipping the bunny hill, the green runs, the blue runs and even the black diamonds. It was like being dropped from a helicopter for an extreme back-country adventure. Going uphill was difficult enough, but looking back down the mountain was horrifying.

As I looked down at a 12-inch trail scattered with rocks, boulders, and very poorly placed roots and trees, I could feel my heart in my throat and my stomach beginning to churn. Self-doubt and fear were very real emotions. I tried to calm myself by thinking that people do this kind of thing all the time. Heck, the Mountain Dew guy didn’t die, right? So down I went. It was not pretty or even successful, but I did go down.
When I told the story to a friend of mine who was a sponsored racer, he laughed and asked where I went. I told him. His response was, “Are you crazy? Nobody goes down that hill.” I did feel a little better after hearing that, and by comparison, my next ride was simple.

It has become evident that I will never be a professional mountain biker, but I have learned that you will never know what you are capable of without a “gut check” every once-in-a-while.


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THE BOTTOM LINE:

Principal 1: You have to be tested to know what you are capable of.

Principal 2: Perseverance is required for success. Otherwise you aren’t good, you’re just lucky.

Principal 3: Fear is not truth. It’s just fear.

One Step Back. Two Steps Forward.

I think it’s time for a little history lesson. I recently read a book about Thomas Edison. He was incredible, there is no doubt about it, but just like most people, he still needed investors to back his ideas. Edison was a true innovator. But his success was also due to a great team he called “muckers”. His muckers worked like crazy to turn his ideas into reality. Also, let’s not forget that Edison wasn’t trying to get rich quick. He said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

Here’s some more to think about: the Wright brothers did not invent the airplane; Henry Ford didn’t invent the car; Robert Fulton didn't invent the steam ship; and neither Bill Gates nor Steve Jobs invented computers. So what do these historically great people all have in common? They all took a good idea and made it better. Where would we be if they hadn’t? The truth is, someone else would have done it too.

If being the originator of an idea was the only measure of success, we would never have made it to the moon. Today’s greatest innovations are most often improvements on existing ideas or processes. Keep this in mind when thinking about how to move your business forward.

It may be worth taking a step back to look seriously at what has been done. You may be surprised that the greatest leaps forward can be made when you improve on an old process. They call it progress.

There is an old marketing adage that says, “It’s better to be first than best.” I think they are wrong. After all, how many people still buy Zenith televisions?

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THE BOTTOM LINE:

Principal 1: To succeed you need to move forward despite what other people say.

Principal 2: Innovation is not a synonym for invention, nor is it a synonym for creativity. Innovation is about improving process, re-thinking ideas, and executing a plan.

Principal 3: History can teach us if we are willing to learn. Many great businesses have failed because they stopped moving forward.