Why your startup should not copy 37signals or FogCreek
We are advised from all sides - learn from the leaders. Your business should be similar to Toyota or Google, your blog should be similar to Joel Spolsky or Set Godin, your software should be similar to software from Apple and 37signals.
Maybe it's my fault. I read too many books, subscribed to too many blogs.
However, just because someone has worked out a strategy or product doesn’t mean that you should do the same.
The problem is that all the tips are different, and often the opposite. For example, Zappos uses Twitter as part of its awesome client service. Their CEO, Tony Hsieh, even wrote an introduction to Twitter for newbies .
All on Twitter barricades. But wait, Seth Godin, the 12th most popular blogger in the universe, says Twitter is complete bullshit . And not only Twitter, but all social networks are overloaded with garbage and empty chatter.
So what is twitter? A key link in terms of world domination or a miserable waste of time?
Same thing with blogs. World blogging leaders write more than once a day, and many consider this an important element of success. Nevertheless, in my reader there are blogs with more than a hundred thousand subscribers, whose authors write no more often than a couple of times a week, and many less.
Copyblogger says that you need to write simply and clearly, like a third grader , and write the headers in Cosmo style . Does this mean that my blogdoomed to failure if I do not follow these rules?
I don’t think so. My readers will be able to wade through the jungle of complex sentences and will not blush at the sight of the word “transcendental”.
It is easy to see that neither Twitter nor the frequency of posting will be the decisive factor that will allow you to succeed.
The problem is that we are trying to learn from examples that lie outside the “normal” range. On statistical anomalies, in other words.
Malcom Gladwell calls them outliers . At Taleb these are black swans.
Outstanding success cannot be predicted. Trying to break it apart will fail.
Take athletes. In childhood, trainers teach everyone the same way. However, many prominent athletes are doing something wrong. They don’t hold a racket, they throw a ball wrong, they don’t sit in a saddle like that.
They are so far from the norm that the standard rules simply do not work.
This explains a lot. This explains why Zappos sold shoes for more than a billion dollars last year providing fantastic customer service, while Amazon, the largest online store, doesn't even write its phone on its website.
If you think about it, there is still something in common between these companies. They are not afraid to go against the generally accepted point of view (*).
Moreover, these companies have changed the very concept of “common sense”. Common sense is what works.
Now it's your turn. Are you ready to go upwind?
- (*) in the original “buck conventional wisdom”, which can be translated as “fuck common sense”
Based on an article by Jason Cohen .
Maybe it's my fault. I read too many books, subscribed to too many blogs.
However, just because someone has worked out a strategy or product doesn’t mean that you should do the same.
The problem is that all the tips are different, and often the opposite. For example, Zappos uses Twitter as part of its awesome client service. Their CEO, Tony Hsieh, even wrote an introduction to Twitter for newbies .
All on Twitter barricades. But wait, Seth Godin, the 12th most popular blogger in the universe, says Twitter is complete bullshit . And not only Twitter, but all social networks are overloaded with garbage and empty chatter.
So what is twitter? A key link in terms of world domination or a miserable waste of time?
Same thing with blogs. World blogging leaders write more than once a day, and many consider this an important element of success. Nevertheless, in my reader there are blogs with more than a hundred thousand subscribers, whose authors write no more often than a couple of times a week, and many less.
Copyblogger says that you need to write simply and clearly, like a third grader , and write the headers in Cosmo style . Does this mean that my blogdoomed to failure if I do not follow these rules?
I don’t think so. My readers will be able to wade through the jungle of complex sentences and will not blush at the sight of the word “transcendental”.
It is easy to see that neither Twitter nor the frequency of posting will be the decisive factor that will allow you to succeed.
The problem is that we are trying to learn from examples that lie outside the “normal” range. On statistical anomalies, in other words.
Malcom Gladwell calls them outliers . At Taleb these are black swans.
Outstanding success cannot be predicted. Trying to break it apart will fail.
Take athletes. In childhood, trainers teach everyone the same way. However, many prominent athletes are doing something wrong. They don’t hold a racket, they throw a ball wrong, they don’t sit in a saddle like that.
They are so far from the norm that the standard rules simply do not work.
This explains a lot. This explains why Zappos sold shoes for more than a billion dollars last year providing fantastic customer service, while Amazon, the largest online store, doesn't even write its phone on its website.
If you think about it, there is still something in common between these companies. They are not afraid to go against the generally accepted point of view (*).
Moreover, these companies have changed the very concept of “common sense”. Common sense is what works.
Now it's your turn. Are you ready to go upwind?
- (*) in the original “buck conventional wisdom”, which can be translated as “fuck common sense”
Based on an article by Jason Cohen .