Starting a Business? Start Here.
Too many businesses live reactively, chasing market trends in pursuit of that hot, new thing.
They watch what sells then chase it like a dog after a car, only to find that once they catch it, they quickly become distracted by the next shiny car that whizzes by.
It’d be easy to blame social media for this. The past decade has diluted our attention spans and enslaved us to the idea that if we want to survive in the current digital ecosystem, we must pivot quickly and follow wherever the market might lead.
But it’s a more systemic problem than Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube combined can lay claim to.
In fact, it’s human nature surmised in the simple phrase:
The grass is always greener on the other side.
It’s always been this way. We’ve always been short-sighted pursuers of the thing directly in front of us.
Well…we’re not all short-sighted. Not all the time, at least.
There are a few rare birds who see past the newest and hottest thing. They don’t chase after where the market is now. They march to the spot they know the market will eventually be.
They stake their claim and then…
They wait.
They wait for the moment when their bet pays off and the market turns the corner. Voila, they’re perfectly positioned to act.
And we, in the herd of followers, barely able to see the market through the cloud of dust being kicked up by our collective boots, say to ourselves, “They got lucky. They found a short-cut.”
If only we found a shortcut, we too could catch the market.
Well, my friend. I’m here to show you the shortcut.
Spoiler alert: It’s actually not short. It’s the scenic route. But here’s the plot twist: It’s the only way to build something great with the capacity to last.
It’s called The Hedgehog Concept and we’re lifting it straight out of Jim Collins’ book Good to Great (which is, to my eye, one of the best books on business out there).
The Hedgehog Concept is comprised of three factors that come together to form a beautiful Venn diagram of extreme importance to your business (Ability, Passion, Economic Engine).
The Hedgehog Concept originates from Isaiah Berlin’s famous essay, “The Hedgehog and the Fox”, based upon the ancient Greek parable which states:
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
The Hedgehog Concept, therefore, is a framework for helping us understand precisely what that “one big thing” could be for us as an individual or business.
Figure out your Hedgehog Concept and you too will catch the market.
Here’s where to start.
What can you be the best at?
A common refrain for the past decade is, “Follow your passion.”
We’ve all heard it a million times, and at this point, a generation of Millenials were raised to believe there’s no other way of viewing the world.
A work-life dedicated to the things we are passionate about… it’s our right. Woe upon the man, woman, or child who tries to tell me differently.
Well, here’s somebody telling you differently.
His name’s Cal Newport and his shiny book called So Good They Can’t Ignore You debunks the myth that you should follow your passion.
In fact, he points out that most people espousing, follow your passion, didn’t actually follow their own advice in getting to where they are.
Steve Jobs was not passionate about personal computers when he first hopped started Apple.
But Steve Jobs didn’t follow his own advice. Not even a little bit. He had a particular set of skills that happened to help him sell computers. After a lifetime of dedicated effort, he mastered those skills. That mastery leads to a life full of achievement and accolade, which, by the end of it, might look like he’d chased his passion, but really, he was just doing what he was good at.
Eventually, that morphed into a passion, but it’s probably inaccurate to say he started with it.
Now, where do you and your company come into this?
Well, Steve Jobs might not have been passionate when he started Apple, but he certainly had the skill set to become the best at it.
Did he know that at the time? Maybe, maybe not.
Could be that Steve Jobs just got stupid lucky.
But getting lucky is no sort of business plan, so if you want to get a leg up on Mr. Jobs, then you should be asking yourself from day one:
Can we be the best at what we’re doing?
If the answer is no, then you need to do some soul searching because that guy who can be the best is out there and he’s probably going to beat you.
You could try recruiting them, but what skill or unique offering do you have that makes you better than the pack?
Don’t move into any market until you can answer this. Too many people forge mediocre businesses that’ll inevitably fail after sucked their owners dry of time and resources.
Don’t be one of these people.
Build something great. Build something to last. The best way to do that?
Build something that only you can build.
What are you passionate about?
Okay, so remember how I just got done talking about how passion is overrated?
This is the hypocritical section of the article. It’s time to do an about-face.
Because while it’s true you shouldn’t just chase your passions, you must possess a requisite amount of enthusiasm for the thing you are pursuing.
Without passion for your work, or your industry, or your…something, you’re going to burn out.
It’s the rare, soulless individual who can devote their life to building something that fills them with meh.
Don’t be soulless.
Don’t be filled with meh.
But neither should you chase after something simply because you’re passionate about it.
Remember, the conversation must always start by objectively answering: What can I be the best at?
If how you answer that question doesn’t lead to a certain level of excitement and enthusiasm, well keep digging, my friend. You haven’t found your golden goose yet.
What is your economic engine?
Here’s the part where most people stumble.
How do you monetize the thing that you are
- The Best At
- Passionate About
So many failed Etsy shops litter the digital graveyard, full of stuff that somebody was quite good at making.
Problem is they went out of business because there weren’t enough people interested in the thing they were selling.
You’re going to have a hard time creating a successful business selling things that nobody wants to buy.
Are you the world’s best repository for all sports-related trivia? Are you passionate about sharing said knowledge?
Well, sorry, bucko… your business idea of making house calls to tell people about last night’s game while they cook dinner probably won’t gain much traction.
There’s no market there.
People don’t consume information in that way.
Then again, people are consuming audio in ever greater numbers these days. We, as a society, are swinging back towards radio.
Well, not radio, per-se. That’s like the newspaper, it’s dead.
But the modern radio is the podcast.
Enormous numbers of people are listening to podcasts these day, and the number is only growing.
That’s because the medium lends itself to multitasking.
You can listen and learn and be entertained without occupying your hands or eyeballs. The same can’t be said for video or the printed word.
So is there an avenue for monetizing the dissemination of your sports-related knowledge? Absolutely! But you have to go to where the people are.
It’s the same with any other industry or business venture.
You must have a clear (preferably proven) economic engine. Without it, you’re just sitting in a shopping cart making the vroom-vroom noises with your mouth.
If you want to be something more than the crazy person that previous image evokes, you must find the intersection between what you can be best at, the thing you are passionate about, and a proven economic engine.
Once you’ve channeled your inner Hedgehog, you’re now ready to launch with the knowledge and security that success is now only a matter of consistently applied hard work.
