There is this common belief that we have to compete and beat the competition to be the best at something. While this may be true in zero-sum games such as any sport or social status games, in the business context you don’t have to compete with others to be the best! In fact, you will be the most successful if you don’t compete (and it is more easy and profitable).
As the speakers argue, you escape competition by being authentic! “Package” yourself in a product. And if there is market fit, you will be a monopoly without any competition!!
How do you escape competition
Productize Yourself!
- Productize — The Product has to have some kind of leverage built-in. (the 4 kinds: Labor, Capital, Code and Media)
- Yourself — It implies 2 main things:
- Specific Knowledge — Is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion. It should feel like play to you, but work for others. It can be taught, but only through apprenticeships, not in schools.
- Accountability: Take risks under your own name. At least in the business context, the benefits of being accountable far exceed the downside risk. Even if you fail, people will usually forgive your shortcomings if the effort was honest and high integrity based. If you are willing to be accountable, you have an edge over most people. Because as humans we are wired to overweight the downside risk, which makes total sense from an evolutionary stand point!
How do you get rewarded
If there is a fit between the product and the market, you will get rewarded. And because within the product is packaged an “extension of yourself”, you are the only one who can deliver it. You essentially become a natural monopoly. And even if you don’t generate too much in revenues (because your market turns out to be a small niche) it doesn’t matter, because a defining characteristic of a monopoly is a high profit margin. So you can still make money!
