“In order to scale, you have to do things that don’t scale.”
—Reid Hoffman
The goal should not be to sell what is popular, unless you have short term goals. The goal should be to own a category, to have a monopoly because your brand, experience, and product are so unique that there is no competition.
This cannot be done if your focus is on what is popular because, if you try to catch up with what’s popular, you are most likely already too late. The real opportunity is found in something that has not happened yet, something that has not been thought of yet, or by combining things that have never been combined before.
The big win is on the other side of finding out what people want before they even know they want it and then telling them about it, letting them experience it, and showing them what they have been missing. This means doing something different or at least doing something that has been done before, but in an entirely different way.
This all requires vision, a lot of persistent, and, even more importantly, very good listening skills.
“As in life, so too it is in budo. As in budo, so too it is in life.
-Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu