Don’t Worry Too Much About Being First

Many entrepreneurs are convinced their idea or concept is unique and they think they are tapping into a virgin market. Then they worry about being able to implement their idea as quickly as possible, because they fear that someone else might potentially beat them at launching this type of business first. As a result, many business developers are rushing the execution of their concept (while not being willing to reduce the amount of useless features that “must” come with it) and they end up with a half-assed product that isn’t clean, doesn’t work well, and is bloated with unnecessary features.

I’ve seen this happen over and over and it’s probably a direct consequence of not understanding that ideas are worthless (it’s the implementation that makes a difference).

Here are a few reasons why you shouldn’t worry too much about being first in your market:

1. Most likely, you’re not the first one who thought of your business concept. And it’s more than probable that someone out there has tried to implement it, or even has already implemented it. So why rush? If you’re concept is viable, and your execution is excellent – you have a good chance of success. Focus on what matters.

2. Being first can actually be a significant disadvantage. You may end up making all the inevitable pioneer’s mistakes, and paving the road for your competitors. In fact, if you look at most successful companies, you’ll realize that they were not the first in their market – rather they brought something new to an existing market, and performed better than the existing competition. They learned from the pioneers mistakes and problems, and were able to innovate in a targeted manner, producing a greater ROI.

3. What’s the point of being first if you can’t enjoy the road towards launching your project because you are too much in a rush, and too stressed out about missing “the opportunity” of being the first one? After all, the early stage of building a business is the best part!  Make sure to enjoy it.

Google wasn’t the first search engine, Facebook wasn’t the first social media platform (by the way Facebook overcame the competition by offering less features- not more), Basecamp wasn’t the first project management tool, and Noam Design wasn’t the first web design company!

If you have an interesting example of a great company that wasn’t first in its market, please share it in the comments below!