RE3EL STANCE

As I outline the “13 characteristics to successful entrepreneurs/entrepreneurship”, I’ll give you a bit of a riddle…What company am I…

• I was created in 1975 by an advertising executive
• I had only one product and it was sold for $3.95 each
• The raw goods to make the product were imported from Rosarito Beach in Baja California, Mexico
• Though the product was pretty basic, I came with a training manual
• I had a short life but made my creator a millionaire (in 1970’s dollars!)
• When my founder shared the idea for me with friends and associates, they all thought I was “stoned”
• My owner became so famous for a short time that he was featured on “Late Night With Johnny Carson”

Any guesses?Yep, “The Pet Rock”. Now, if somebody can come up with a business that made its owner wealthy with a more stupid idea…let me know. But, in the meantime, I’ll go down as saying this is quite possibly the stupidest business every created. So stupid, in fact, that it was completely brilliant.But, the real brilliance wasn’t in the idea but rather the execution. Founder Gary Dahl, knew it was stupid but also know that it would work. He imported the stones to keep his costs down (yep, the costs of rocks!!). He marketed the rocks through a massive press campaign. He invested the money well, knowing that the fad would fade quickly. And, he walked away a millionaire to once again jump back into the advertising business.Okay, so I would never propose that you should run out and start a business with a dumb idea. But, I will say that the idea isn’t as important as everybody thinks it is. If you have a brilliant idea that is poorly executed it will always do much worse than an average or even below average idea with brilliant execution. After all, the world is a really big place and there is room for all sorts of ideas. So,

• Build a great marketing plan, implement it and adjust
• Build a sales process and perfect your distribution (if you are in the ideas business…remember, ideas need distribution too)
• Create partnerships that can help you to evangelize
• Be smart about your costs
• Create a unique position in the market: in other words, do something nobody else does
• Don’t waste your time listening to non-believers; be creative in connecting with those with the capacity to believe
• Work your butt off

It’s that easy (or hard).