You shouldn't try to get rich, of course. If you set out to make a lot of money in a short-period of time you are more than likely to short-change customers; create faulty products and services, and--to be blunt--become a jerk in the process.
So what's with the headline promising (sort of) that there is a short-cut you can take to success?
Well, after you have identified a need in the market, one that is matched to your particular strengths, look at what your competitors are doing and ask, "what can I do differently." (That is what is really meant when people you should find a niche.)
Is everyone selling a bundled product? Then maybe you can succeed by stripping it to it basics. It worked for discount brokers and countless others.
Have your competitors decided they are in a commodity business. They maybe there is a place for taking that basic model and making it special. Look at how well it worked for designer blue jeans.
Neither of those ideas required creating something unique. Stockbrokers and blue jeans had been around forever. It just took understanding that you need to go where the competition isn't. And both of these ideas will allow you to move a bit faster.
Some 30 years ago, I began work on my first book: Sweat Equity: What it Really Takes to Build America’s Best Small Companies. I thought it would be fun to go back and revisit some of the lessons that my co-author Geoffrey N. Smith and I came up with--like this one--that have stood the test of time.
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Paul B. Brown is co-author (along with Leonard A. Schlesinger and Charles F. Kiefer) of Just Start: Take Action; Embrace Uncertainty and Create the Future published by Harvard Business Review Press.
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