Have you ever watched a boxing match? Two professional warriors pummel each other. When the fight ends, one is declared a winner — for that moment, at least. But if you’ve seen a fight, you’ve seen the boxers’ bruised and battered faces. That’s winning? Sometimes even the champ must go home wondering if there’s an easier way.
Are you like one of those boxers? One day, you’re on the offense, coming up with new ideas — but then, your competitor copies them and sets you back on your heels. Other days you’re playing defense, reacting to your competitor’s latest move, struggling to get yourself off the ropes and back into the center of the ring.
In between, you’re trying to motivate staff, boost productivity and head off problems. You’re working so hard — yet the gains don’t seem commensurate with your effort. Sometimes you go home wondering if there might be a better way.
What’s a better way?
Well, I’m here to tell you that there is a better way. It’s the secret behind Silicon Valley’s most successful companies, and it works just as well in all industries. Put simply: If you want to win, then play a different game.
After all, you’d be reckless to challenge Serena Williams on the court, but how about on the golf course? You’d be nuts to contest Gary Kasparov at chess, but how about at charades? It’s exhausting at best — and devastating at worst — to try to beat the master at his or her own game. If you want to be the frontrunner in the field, then come up with a race of your own.
It’s easy to see how this kind of thinking works for entrepreneurship. What’s the name of that new soda everyone loves? Uh, right, it doesn’t exist. If you aren’t Coke or Pepsi, you’ll never even get a shot in “the cola wars.” But that didn’t stop Leonard Marsh, Hyman Golden and Arnold Greenberg from joining forces in 1972 to launch a fruit juice — and, later, ice tea — company they called Snapple, which Quaker Oats Co. bought in 1994 for $1.7 billion.
Creating Snapple wasn’t rocket science. Its founders weren’t beverage gurus. Marsh once memorably said that when they launched the business, they knew “as much about juice as about making an atom bomb.” In fact, I’d wager the people at RC Cola probably could have come up with Snapple, too. Instead, RC has been slogging it out in the cola trenches since 1905, endlessly struggling to grow their business at Coke’s and Pepsi’s expense.
Head-to-head isn’t for everybody
My point? The most successful new businesses don’t go head-to-head for share in an existing market. They win by simply sidestepping competition; by choosing their own game to play.
If all your efforts to grow your business (or career) are bringing you only limited success, maybe it’s time to walk away from the competition.
Find a place and space where you’re free to create something fresh, new and intriguing. When you do that, the field is wide-open and you’re already in the lead.
Jerry McLaughlin is the co-founder and former CEO at Branders.com.
