Crushing the Second Attempt
/Have you ever heard of the "first mover" principle? It's the idea that the first one to market wins the day because they get a jump on competition. The only problem: it is a complete myth. If it were true we'd all be checking our MySpace instead of our Facebook or doing an AltaVista search instead of Google. What a world that would be!
It turns out that the second attempt has a distinct advantage over the first. I guess the lesson is to just wait for someone to try something and then copy their idea....just kidding.
Instead the lesson is to re-frame how we think about our first attempts. The goal of the first attempt is not to succeed, it is to get to the second attempt.
Adam Grant, author of Originals: How Non-Conformist Move the World, gives a list of steps that describe how we approach new ideas.
He argues that originals follow these same steps with one exception; they skip step four. Originals have doubt of the idea, but not self doubt. After watching Grant's Ted Talk I thought about all the bad ideas we've ran through within our nonprofit NeighboringMovement.org. Here are 20 ideas we've had that didn't work.
- Take over an old church
- Create a Community Center
- Create a co-working space
- Folk n' Fork (dinner and folk music)
- Create online asset database
- Create a music venue
- Create a coffee shop
- Partner with existing church
- Create a business that re-purposes old tires
- Get 50 blocks networked in a year
- Create a national network of neighboring initiatives
- Use a church's kitchen to start a restaurant
- Start a bakery
- Use a church to house elderly
- Host immersions for college students
- Turn a church into co-living space
- Create a system of mentoring for neighbors
- Offer online courses on neighboring
- Create and sell a newspaper
- Work to help neighbors register to vote
I think you get the point. There are about 4 times what is listed, but I'm going to stop before I get too depressed. While those ideas did not end up working, they did shape and form the ideas that are currently thriving. The most important part about those ideas was not the content, but the process of generating ideas that didn't work and remaining positive about self and team.
In the world of Process Communication Model and Leading Out of Drama we call this "I'm OK and Your OK" or "Plus, Plus", or "+,+". Being "+,+" is an existential position. It is avoiding Grant's step for for self and for others. So when one of our ideas goes up in flame we do not degrade self or blame a teammate, instead we choose to believe that everyone involved is still worthwhile and "OK".
Success is less about having a great idea and more about staying "+,+" when you have a bad one.
This of course is easier said than done. Within our community we have lots of centering practices that help us stay self-full. These include prayer, journaling, intentional community time, tending to hobbies, making art, and many more. Staying "+,+" won't just happen it takes work and the return on investment is totally worth it!
Over the next couple months I am going to share several post all under the category: Free to Fail. Failing is one of the fears I am struggling with while launching this website; so I figured I would head it off early by obsessively reading and writing about it. Here is what you can expect
- August 1: Fighting with Dragons.
- August 8: Success is My Biggest Failure
- August 16: White Male Failing
- August 23: 3 Real Life Super Embarrassing Failures
- August 30: Book Review: Rise by Sarah Lewis
- Sept. 6: Crushing the Second Attempt
- Sept. 13: Shame Shame Go Away, Come Again...Never
- Sept. 20: Never Too Late for Now
- Sept. 27: The Irregular Webinar; Free To Fail
Each post will show up on Wednesdays. On Friday the post will be followed by a Tune In Tip. These weekly tips will share a practice you can try in real life. Finally the whole series will end with a webinar where we can discuss the topic in real time.
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