Seth Godin has an interesting post on the ‘chicken and the egg problem‘ many business owners face. I want to reflect and expand a little on the theory Seth was talking about.

The problem with most businesses is the ‘chicken and egg problem’. That is, most business owners are afraid to be movers and shakers within their industry or creating something completely innovative. There will only come one MySpace and one eBay mega-site every 5 years.

Success doesn’t happen overnight and you will often fail time and time again if you ONLY adapt to what everyone else in the industry is doing. I couldn’t tell you how many ‘idiots’ come up to me as a web designer and ask if I could create them a website like MySpace. These people seriously believe they will be able to sell their MySpace-Imitation or variation thereof for $500 million to NewsCorp.

Not going to happen this decade buddy. The world truely would be a better place and our market would be in better shape if people were shaking and rattling some cages.

The sad truth is that every has their toes on the edge of a cliff of success and are afraid to take a leap. Instead, they latch onto a successful business model and modify it to their tastes. Success rarely follows.

So, if you have the next breakthrough idea do not watch the big guys. Rather than looking to your neighbor for ideas, build and blend a team of highly skilled individuals and put your next big thing into action.