There’s a great idea floating around out there that being successful requires you to be right and non-consensus. It’s sort of an obvious point but framing it like this makes it stick in the mind. I think Peter Thiel has publicly talked about this and helped spread the idea but a quick search didn’t turn up a specific post or interview of his. Either way, we all know it and we are all trying to do that thing that no one else is doing or thinking about (non-consensus) but also is very much needed by customers and users (right).
No matter how non-consensus you are to begin with, if you are right - like on the path to a billion dollar business right - then you will become consensus at some point in the near future.
I find most problems can be solved by referring to Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle concept.
It’s a relatively basic, but a super powerful, framework. The essence is that before thinking about what you do as a company or how you do it, you need to think about why you do it. His TED talk (embeded below) is pretty awesome.
Within this framework, when you go from being alone and right to having competition you are now not the only one with the same “what”. In this scenario the “how” and “why” become more important than ever. You need to differentiate not just with a new technology, service or product but with better strategies and tactics (how) and with a stronger brand (why).
Being non-consensus and right makes worrying about the inner circles less important at the outset. That all changes when you are no longer non-consensus. To protect from this inevitable outcome, it’s worth starting with why and working your way out no matter how empty, crowded or currently nonexistant your market is. On the plus side, you can be massively successful by being right and consensus. It happens all the time. But the companies that win there have their why and how buttoned up like nobody’s business.