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It’s 2020, yet we still remember Sir Roger Bannister as the first person to run a mile in under 4 minutes.
Apple became the world’s most valuable company, largely because of profits from the iPhone; the world’s first smart phone.
There are 2 useful lessons here:
- When you are the first to do something, it’s remembered for a very long time. We remember Bannister, even though Australia’s John Landy broke Bannister’s record just 6 weeks later. Landy was faster, yet remained relatively unknown because he wasn’t the first person to go sub 4 minutes.
- It doesn’t have to be perfect. The first iPhone was really buggy. It even lacked a basic copy and paste facility for over a year! However, it was extremely useful.
This begs the question
What useful adaptation to your service, could you be the first in your industry to create for your marketplace, in response to the current crisis?
We live in very uncertain times right now. Lots of business owners have almost mothballed their business. Whilst others are innovating and inspiring their marketplace, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Fortunately, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. For example, an idea that’s common in another industry may be unheard of in yours. It just needs to be new to your industry, profession or marketplace.
And it absolutely doesn’t need to be perfect. It needs to be useful, based on the new requirements of the market you serve.