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Well, that was a bold title.
Remember when Obama said, “you didn’t build that” and everyone went nuts? Turns out he was 100% right.
Because no one—NO ONE—does it alone. No one succeeds on their own. Yes, at the end of the day, a person’s success relies on their work ethic and ability to put themselves out there. However, success is only possible with the help of other people.
Think about it. Even if you created the best damn business ever with the best damn product ever, ALL BY YOURSELF, you’d still need other people. Why? You’d need customers!
Wow, that was quite the tangent.
Here’s the point – not only do you need other people to succeed, you need other people’s ideas!
Now, before you jump ship at that, let me explain.
I’m not talking about directly mimicking other people’s ideas. No, that would be stupid. Why? Because if you completely mimic someone else’s idea, the absolute best spot you can reach is second place.
This is what we see in the tech industry, big time. Think of all the Apple mimickers there are out there. How many of them are as profitable as Apple? None. This is because mimicking Apple directly will put you—at best—in second place.
“But didn’t you just say copying is key to business?”
Why yes… yes I did!
But I’m not talking about direct mimicking of other’s ideas. I’m talking about applying the concept behind those great ideas, and using that concept in your own business!
This is great news because it means you can steal ideas from ANYONE and EVERYONE. They don’t have to be in your market, niche, or whatever.
One of Apple’s core ideas is that technology should not be separate from the human experience. It should be a 1:1 extension. According to Apple, when you interact with technology, it should feel completely natural.
This is the CONCEPT that generates Apple’s greatest IDEAS. Think of it. Down to the very packaging, Apple is 100% dedicated to improving their user’s experience with technology.
We can apply that same CONCEPT to any business. When designing a smartphone app, for example, you could apply this CONCEPT directly, without directly mimicking Apple. It would simply be built in such a way that would be as intuitive for the user as possible.
The app would be designed from the ground up to be extremely intuitive based on what type of app it is. At every step of the design process, you could ask yourself the question, “do my users know what to do on this screen?” If there’s even a slight chance they didn’t, you would redo that screen until it was obvious what was the next step.
Your end product wouldn’t be anything close to an Apple product (despite the platform it was built on). But it would be very close—conceptually—to the idea that technology should be incredibly intuitive!
When you hear or see a good idea in action, don’t focus on the idea. Focus on the CONCEPT that led to that idea’s inception. If you use this perspective, you can easily get new ideas for your business, just by keeping your ears open!
And the best part is, you won’t be landing yourself in second place. No, you’ll be creating a completely new business from the ground up – a melting pot of CONCEPTS that are valuable to whatever business you’re developing.
This dramatically decreases the odds that competitors will be able to keep up with you. Why? Because they’ll be tempted to mimic your ideas. This will only serve to help you, as soon enough, your competitors will be reinforcing the quality of your brand over theirs.
So next time you’re looking for ideas for your business, stop. Instead, look for the concepts that are behind all the most successful businesses. Then use those concepts to generate brand new, 100% unique ideas for your own business.
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