When they Zig, you Zag.
The art of standing alone, of seeing and of challenging the status quo…
Sure, sounds great. But, it’s not always so clear.
It turns out (and makes perfect sense) that it’s of little use to be different just for the sake of being different (did you hear about Clairol yoghurt Shampoo? Me neither…)
Andy Rachleff, a VC and co-founder of WealthFront has another way to look at it, which can help, because it’s visual and sometimes when we see something instead of read it, it’s more fun.
Andy has a graph, with two axes on which you can plot your idea or approach.
There’s the x-axis, which is “right or wrong,” and there’s the y-axis which is “consensus or non-consensus.” Of course, we want our approach, service or idea to be “right” (poor quality, ineffective work, or lack of “fit” simply won’t stack up – see the yoghurt shampoo), but that’s not enough.
We also want to be non-consensus. This means, that we want the idea to not be embraced by the majority.
Here it is graphically (hopefully this comes through the email…)
It turns out, whenever we are in consensus, the possible margins, or “edge” is already factored in. There are too many competitors and little room for impact.
So, while it might feel good to create a “me too” idea, because we know that it’s “right,” and, it might feel spicy to create yoghurt shampoo, it’s also worth noticing that nobody cares about the first and people got sick from trying to eat the latter.
