

Forget Being First, Just Be Different - brandnewlow
http://bradmaier.com/2008/09/forget-being-first-just-be-different/
For all our talk about wanting to be first to market, this post makes a pretty good point, too.
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brm
I all truthfulness I wrote the post in part to see if anything written in the
seth godin and 37signals style, no matter what it is, gets voted to the top

(ftr...brandnewlow did not submit it because he thought it was good, the test
would have been flawed if I submitted it myself)

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jamesbritt
I think it was on some 37 Signals thread that a reader pointed out that
aphorisms always seemed to come in opposing pairs. "Many hands make light
work"; "Too many chefs spoil the broth". That sort of thing. Yet each seemed
to speak the truth.

Much of what can be found on "start up" blogs are business aphorisms; they
have an air of pithy truth, but are often lacking in any real backing or
substance. With some moderate effort, equally compelling yet opposing pearls
of insight can be constructed. Show people either one and most would be
nodding their heads in agreement.

Any topic of interest is complex, and there are many seemingly contradictory
observations you can make that are true in some way but are not the whole
story. There's a tendency, though, for readers to latch onto the things they
most want to be true and ignore the rest, regardless of no actual backing
evidence being provided.

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awt
How is being different different from being first?

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craigbellot
Forget being different, just be better.

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dmix
Thanks for pointing out the biggest flaw in those 37s/seth godin style blog
posts.

You can't bring a business strategy down to one generic phrase/idea like that.
Every business is different: markets vary, products have different
requirements, etc. Take your example, in competitive markets with commodity-
style products, being better is not an option and differentiation is
essential.

And this post, what if your entering a new market? Trying to be different is a
waste of time when there is little competition.

