Now it may seem obvious that followers never lead but people do it because it feels safe. Following implies that there is success ahead.
Blockbuster owned the movie rental business for nearly 15 years before Netflix tried something different. It took 7 years for Blockbuster to realize Netflix was on to something before simply following their lead. Netflix still comfortably dominates the online rental market.
Howard Schultz decided that coffee didn’t have to suck. He started a coffee shop that promised great coffee. But he went a step further and created an experience. He was able to see beyond a normal business that relied on quick sales of a mediocre product. Many have emulated his idea, but Starbucks is the only player synonymous with coffee. “I want some Starbucks”
Lead your way to a niche. If you are following, it’s already filled.
The blogosphere is filled with few leaders and many followers. What is hard to reconcile is why there are so many followers clamoring to jam themselves in the crowded center of the Blogo-Sphere [sic] of Influence.
If you want to see this effect in action, look at the CF around Google’s release of the Chrome browser on techmeme from last night. The few Source, Pundits, and Decider Influencers matter. Their opinion is heard loud and clear. Everyone else talking is just blabbering, wasting key strokes.
Why not be unique? Create great original content as opposed to repurposing, rebloging, republishing, or opining on another’s work. Those actions increase the value of THEIR work, not the “rhea’s.”
Followers tell me 3 things:
- The other guy’s work is better
- The other guy is smarter
- I have nothing original to say
In other words, go read him because I’m boring.
The discussion in the Blogo-Sphere of Influence mostly radiates outward because the blogosphere is a linkfest popularity contest. It’s about who can have the most traffic and thus the biggest voice. Links are currency. The closer you are to the center, the more links and traffic you own, and the louder your voice becomes. Followers assume that if they talk about what the leaders are talking about, they too can earn their way to popularity. That strategy is natural and safe but erroneous and fruitless.
This principle holds true for anything. Once we find we aren’t getting it (whatever it may be) from the leader, we seek the leader — the best, the trusted — because we naturally avoid secondhand imitations. They are too often watered-down, altered, or too cheap to rely upon.
Which brings me to my point:
To follow an established leader will almost always result in being perpetually behind. If you only know how to follow, you’re unoriginal and replaceable. Value comes from scarcity not abundance.
Being behind the leader means your looking up a steep slope. Leaders in search, to page views, to application adoption, to keywords are dominated by what Chris Anderson termed the long tail. The winners win big while the losers jingle pennies.
Hence, followers never lead. They are admitting they don’t know how.
Think about the people, companies, or organizations that have influenced your life. Did they get there doing what everyone else was doing? Why then would you clump in the middle of a crowded and cozy market, full of incumbents, while assuming you’re on your way to impact?
Success and influence do not come easy from following. They come from walking, tripping, failing and working alone until you realize there is someone following you. That’s when you look down the curve and keep running.
