Choice Is the Enemy of Action

On growing the right idea into a business:

You don’t create a key and then go around your neighborhood testing which door it opens.

You find a door that needs to be opened—and then create a key for it.

Same in business: it’s a mistake to create a product and then look for your customer.
Instead, start with your customer—their pains and dreams—and build the right product for them.

Case Study from Seth Godin:

In his early years, he went to India to sell sunglasses and prescription lenses. Many elderly people were walking around—indicating a biological need for glasses—but when they approached the table, they were overwhelmed by the abundance of options. In the end, most didn’t buy anything.

Seth reflected on what might be going wrong and devised a new strategy: he hid all the options. When someone came to the shop, they underwent a quick diagnosis and were prescribed one specific pair of sunglasses. Take it or leave it.

By removing choice and prescribing the best pair for their needs, sales instantly doubled.

Where might you be giving your customers too many options? Less is more.

Let’s say you open a vegan restaurant.

Should you add one non-vegan dish just so people who definitely aren’t vegan can still find something they like?

The answer is, unapologetically, no.

When you try to engage everyone, you rarely delight anyone.

The relentless pursuit of the masses will make you boring—because mass means average.

And average means nobody cares.

Target the smallest viable market and delight them so thoroughly that they tell others.

“People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.

The best way to make something new happen is to make it easy for them to tell themselves a new story.” — Seth Godin

Best,

Maxi | The Warrior’s Newsletter