Imagine, in a moment of creativity, that a million dollar idea had just popped into your head. An idea that will produce the hottest products. Demand will go through the roof. If anything, supply levels will struggle to meet demands. You can picture building the ultimate business and raking in the money. In one of your visions your eyes glaze over – your pupils dilate to the point where they resemble dollar signs… but then only a few weeks into getting started somebody else, completely out of the blue, from what seemed like nowhere, has just gone and launched an almost identical product to the one you had visualized. Your million dollar idea has just hit the market, only you are not the driver behind it collecting the reward.
What do you do? Well, I can tell you what 97% of people would do. They would give up. Why bother? Someone has beaten you to it. And that’s where I draw the line. That is a poor excuse. A true leader who is deserving of success will see this only as a minor stumbling block.
Take your typical newsworthy athlete. Choose a sport; it doesn’t really matter – because the outcome will be the same. Let’s say that athlete competes in the Olympics and wins a gold medal. What next? Well they could claim in a moment of victory that they are the best in the world… and that is the truth. But a good athlete will not stop at that. They will not only try to win gold and that same title of being the best in the world 4 years later – they will aim to break their record – a swimmer will aim for a faster lap time, a weightlifter will aim for lifting a heavier weight, a gymnast will aim for a performance of greater complexity. What’s the common theme here? – they all aim higher.
So if you feel that someone has taken your million dollar idea and beaten you to the market – don’t see it as a lost opportunity. Instead, see it as an opportunity to challenge that competitor. Perhaps you will be able to offer a competing product which is faster, better, cheaper or easier and gain recognition for being the best. Persevere; Don’t give up. It may still be able to make you a million dollars – it may even make you multiple millions of dollars!
