If you want to learn from the success of others, copy their strategy rather than their tactics.
Just like Twitter
Twitter succeeded because it was the first, mass market, micro blogging service.
The hundreds of start-ups who tried to copy what Twitter did, failed. They copied Twitter’s tactics, rather than their strategy. Twitter’s strategy was to create a unique form of communicating and connecting.
If those start-ups had built their own, unique way to communicate and connect, they would have created something with the potential to succeed. Instead, they failed, because the people who wanted a service that was just like Twitter… used Twitter!
It works like this
By copying the tactics of a successful business, we become a clone. A copy. Something unremarkable.
By copying the strategy of a successful business, we can create something of our own. A remarkable original. A valuable proposition.
Tip – Here’s the best post I’ve written on this subject: My name is Jim Connolly and I am a freak!