A friend recently told me about an iconic book called “Super System.” Apparently, it’s a familiar collection of stories and advice for serious poker players. It made a splash when it was first released, but the reason it interested me was totally different.
In 1979, legendary Texas road gambler Doyle Brunson published a book that flipped poker upside down. It was originally called “How I Made $1,000,000 Playing Poker” and it revealed the secrets of the game that many professionals had wished to keep under wraps. You see, these guys were gambling for their livelihoods and they needed the suckers to keep losing, but that didn’t keep Brunson from publishing the tricks of the trade.
“Changing Gears”
In one of the chapters, Brunson details a principle called “changing gears.” Basically, it works like this: don’t just play loose and don’t just play tight – go back and forth. If you’re betting like crazy for a few hands then, all at once, you should start not betting hands. In poker, it keeps your opponents off balance and confused.
When your opponents are folding a lot, you should be betting often. When they start to get suspicious of all your bets, you should start folding more. In effect, you should be going back and forth, always playing the opposite of the way that they’re playing.
The notion seemed to make sense, and I liked it even more because it could be applied to business. In fact, it mirrored a strategy that I already love.
Zig while they’re zagging
The secret to creating really unique products is to come up with something innovative and new. Unfortunately, it’s hard to always be on the cutting edge. Often times it’s easier to see what your competitors are doing and try doing it yourself. After all, if it works for them, it should work for you.
The problem with that is you’re trying to compete in a field full of copycats. You and everyone else all now have the same features. There’s nothing to separate you. That’s not how innovation works. The real secret is to wait until everyone is going one direction, and then go the other.
You’ve got to zig while they’re zagging.
An example in action
Consider cell phones. Few products have undergone such drastic transformations in such a short time as the cell phone. They started out as bricks resembling the receiving of your home telephone. Then someone started making them smaller. As everyone focused on making them smaller, a few companies focused on making them better telephones. Then companies started focusing on features such as color and games. Then there were flip phones and text-friendly phones, and then they started getting small again. By the time the iPhone came out, touchscreens were one of the only features unexplored – and they took off. Now, after decades of shrinking phones, we’re getting bigger again.
And guess what?
Every time a new phone defied the current trends, it became the most popular phone on the mark. Whenever the market started to go one direction, someone had the courage to go the other way. They zigged when everyone else was zagging and it created something awesome every, single time.
Take a chance
If you’re going to break away from what everyone else is doing, you’re going to need to be willing to accept the risks. Innovation is a raft drifting from the shore. If you’re going to discover something new, you have to be willing to leave land behind.