The Millionaire Fastlane (40 page)

If you build a small store with the goal of intentional iteration, your goal isn't one store, but hundreds, perhaps thousands, through the act of
chaining
or
franchising
. The intentional iterator goes into business to cookie-cut his system across many successes. A small store often starts out as a violation of four commandments but can quickly transfigure into a full-fledged Fastlane venture with iteration. The Fastlane franchising premise is to build a local business defined by systematic processes, then franchise the concept nationally or worldwide. The iterator's goal is to replicate and sell a concept, a brand, and a system and remove himself from operations. While your little deli might not be particularly Fastlane it could be turned Fastlane by the process of II, through franchise or chaining replication.

A popular thread at my forum is titled “Is a candy kiosk Fastlane?” A forum user wanted to know if having automated candy kiosks in the mall constitutes a Fastlane plan. As a standalone, no. But with II? Fastlane baby! One kiosk in one mall isn't going to make you rich because it's a singles-based business. However, 200 kiosks in 50 malls might, because it creates net income, scales asset value, and makes a bigger impact of magnitude. Intentional iteration is the Fastlaner's response to limited scale.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• The best Fastlanes satisfy all five Commandments: Control, Entry, Need, Time, and Scale.
  
• Assuming a need-based premise, the Internet is the fastest interstate, because it overwhelmingly satisfies all Commandments.
  
• Innovation can be any variety of open roads: authoring, inventing, or services.
  
• Inventing success needs coupling with distribution.
  
• A singles-based business is scaled to a home-run business by intentional iteration. With iteration, scale is conquered.
  

CHAPTER 36: FIND YOUR OPEN ROAD

At first, people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done-then it is done, and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.
~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

Needs, Ideas, Opportunity, and the Open Road

Opportunities, and the open roads they represent, are everywhere. Look around. That person complaining at the store counter. Opportunity. That stupid voicemail maze you hate navigating when you call the bank. Opportunity. That unsold house that languishes on the market. Opportunity. That trash on the side of the road. Opportunity. The rotting salad that lasted only two days in the refrigerator. Opportunity. Those people bitching on that online forum. Opportunity.

If you can't see the opportunities that surround you every day, you haven't tuned your Fastlane frequency to them. When you make a few minor mental adjustments, roads seemingly closed are suddenly opened. Many entrepreneurs misinterpret opportunity because they associate opportunity with breakthrough, legendary ideas. They seek virgin ideas, perfect and new; ones that would be unveiled to the world in a grandiose affair. Rarely does that happen.

Opportunity is rarely about some blockbuster breakthrough like the light bulb or the car, but as simple as an unmet need, or a need not met adequately. Opportunity is a solution to an inconvenience. Opportunity is simplification. Opportunity is a feeling. Opportunity is comfort. Opportunity is better service. Opportunity is fixing pain. Opportunity is putting weak companies out of business.

Someone Is Doing It!

You've got a great idea, but someone is already doing it? So what.
Do it better
.

“Someone is doing it” is a monumental illusion imposing as an impassable obstacle. Someone is always already doing it. The bigger question is, can you do it better? Can you fill the need better, offer greater value, or be a better marketer?

When I was struck with my idea to start a limousine directory on the Internet, I thought it was a legendary idea … that is, until I went on the Web and searched. There were already a dozen companies doing what I thought was a pristine, unmolested idea. At the time, my frequency wasn't fully attuned. I was going to drop the idea and start a new brainstorm session in search of that infamous blockbuster idea, one that no one else among 6 billion people on planet Earth had thought of. But a friend interrupted my perception and kicked my antennae into a proper tune. She said, “Competition is everywhere. Just do it and do it better.”

She was right. Competition is a staple of business. This opportunity was an open road, not a closed one. These existing Web directories weren't easily found and, for the most part, weren't user friendly. I recognized a poorly met need and I decided to drive this road of opportunity, despite the numerous barricades that warned “Road Closed.” A decade later, every one of those companies I feared disappeared or became insignificant. In fact, the industry leader, unable to respond to my domination, diverted into an alternative service.

Forget the Big Idea; Go for Better

Successful businesses rarely evolve from some legendary idea. Nope, successful entrepreneurs take existing concepts and make them better. They take poorly met needs and solve them better. Skip the big idea and go for the big execution. You don't need an idea that has never been done before. Old ideas suffice; just take it and do it better! Execute like no one has!

Years ago, what if Sergey Brin and Larry Page looked at the Internet landscape and said “Gee, there are plenty of search engines out there-Yahoo, Snap, AltaVista-why start Google? It's being done!” Thankfully, they didn't, and now Google is the most used search engine, and because of it, Brin and Page are now billionaires. A brand-spanking new idea? Nope, a need solved better with big execution.

Department stores have been around for decades, but that didn't stop Sam Walton from creating Wal-Mart. It was an open road when the road seemed closed. Hamburgers were around for decades, but that didn't stop Ray Kroc from starting McDonalds. It was an open road when the road seemed closed.

Coffee had been around for a thousand years when Howard Schultz created Starbucks. A new idea? Nope, Starbucks made coffee fashionable and invented a brand, an ambiance, and an emotion and attached it to coffee. It was an open road when the road seemed closed.

DVD rental stores were around for a long time, but that didn't stop NetFlix or RedBox from starting a company and adding “convenience” to the need equation. It was an open road when the road seemed closed.

Beer has been brewed for thousands of years, but that didn't stop Jim Koch from starting Sam Adams or Sam Calagione from starting Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, now the fastest growing brewery in America. Dogfish was started back in 1995 with a 10-gallon home brew kit and little cash. There was an open road when the road seemed closed.

Garbage has been around since men have walked the planet. Yet that didn't stop Brian Scudamore from starting and then franchising 1-800-GOT-JUNK, or did it stop Wayne Huizinga from founding Waste Management with just one truck and a handful of customers. He later built Waste Management into a Fortune 500 company. Is garbage a new need? Or a need that needed better fulfillment? It was an open road when the road seemed closed.

A blanket with arms? It's been around for years, but that didn't stop Snuggie from selling 40 million blankets via infomercial marketing. An old idea better marketed and better executed. It was an open road when the road seemed closed. MySpace was thriving well before Facebook, but that didn't stop Mark Zuckerberg. He saw a niche need and solved it. It was an open road when the road seemed closed.

Poorly met needs are open roads when they often appear closed. Successful businesses take existing ideas, services, and products and simply make them better, or spin them in new directions.

How to Spot Open Roads

Not a day goes by when I don't spot a need that can be exploited for Fastlane opportunity. My mind is tuned because I see the terrain of opportunity through accustomed senses. I see and hear what most people don't. How can you tune your eyes and ears to the same attuned frequency? With a little practice, it's easy. Open roads, needs and opportunity come prefaced with “code words” or phrases that scream “This is an opportunity!” When you catch yourself (or someone else) in these words, you've just uncovered a possible opportunity. Here are the most common phrases:

“
I hate …”
What do you hate? Solve the hate, and there's your open road.

“
I don't like …”
What don't you like? Remove the dislike, and there's your open road.

“
This frustrates me …”
What is frustrating? Remove the frustration, and there's your open road.

“
Why is this like this?”
I don't know, why is it? Remove the “why,” and there's your open road.

“
Do I have to?”
Do you? Remove the “have to.” There's your open road.

“
I wish there was …”
What do you wish? If you wish, others wish too. Make wishes come true, and there's your open road.

“
I'm tired of …”
What are you tired of? Fix someone's tiresomeness, and there's your open road.

“
This sucks . . .”
What sucks? Remove or reduce suckage, and there's your open road.

Opportunity is dressed in predictable code words that illuminate its presence.

For example, I'm a sloppy eater. A white shirt plus spaghetti and forget it. Aside from the slop, I have a nasty knack of biting my lip on the inside of my mouth. When I bite myself, a canker sore forms every time. I've had canker sore issues since grade school. They're not problematic unless I accidentally bite my lip or mouth. The last canker sore I had lasted a week and was excruciatingly painful. “I'm tired of these canker sores!” I bellyached. Notice the language “I'm tired …”

Ring ring, opportunity!

My discomfort led me to the Internet for canker sore research. I found some conflicting conjecture and information on how to prevent them. Some people recommended Vitamin X while others recommended Herb Y. (Vitamin X and Herb Y is not the real name because I'm protecting my formula!) So, I bought Vitamin X and Herb Y and waited until my next chewing mistake.

Then it happened. While eating some oatmeal, I bit my lip. A few days later I felt a canker sore brewing at the bite location. I loaded up on Vitamin X and Herb Y. Remarkably, the canker sore never formed, and it appeared that Vitamin X and Herb Y worked as a canker sore preventive. Now, anytime I feel a canker sore brewing from an earlier bite wound, I repeat this process, and each time, the sore does not form. I haven't had a canker sore in nearly two years! I went from one every other month to none.

My opportunity is clear. I could market my special “canker formula” to the masses. I have control, decent entry barriers, scale, and time. How many people suffer from canker sores? How many canker prevention formulas are out there? A few, but are they being marketed well? Can I execute better?

The opportunities of open roads come in easily painted language: Discomfort, distress, inconvenience, complaints, problems, and performance gaps. You must attack these challenges and introduce solutions-offer solutions to the masses and I guarantee money will follow! Moral: Solve other people's problems and you will solve your own money problems!

Failure Cracks Roads Open

Unfortunately, the least-traveled Fastlane roads are paved in failure, not smooth asphalt. This means stalls are guaranteed. Everyone fails on the road to success. What separates the winners from the losers is what happens when failure arises. How are you going to react? Will your road trip end with the verdict being, “This Fastlane shit don't work,” or will you switch roads? Or keep going?

Failures that drive you into new directions are often the most productive forces for invention. The heart pacemaker, microwave ovens, penicillin, and vulcanized rubber are all inventions that are the profound results of failures and accidents. Failure cracked the road open, and in that failure, the inventors had the fortitude to recognize it.

Yes, quitting your road and changing directions is sometimes the best choice. But be mindful of the distinction between “quitting” and “quitting your road.” Quitting is leaving your dreams for dead and putting them into the bin of impossibility. “Quitting your road” is changing course and turning down a new road.

If you end your career as a teacher to start a private tutoring company, you have switched roads. If you sell your tanning salon and start an Internet company, you have turned off one road onto another. If you quit that network marketing company and decide to start your own, you have switched roads.

I made many road changes, but I didn't give up on the dream. If your road doesn't converge with your dreams, it might be time to quit your road.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• Opportunities are rarely about inventing breakthroughs, but about performance gaps, small inconveniences, and pain points.
  
• Competition should not impede your road. Competition is everywhere, and your objective should be to “do it better.”
  
• Fastlane success resides in execution, not in the idea.
  
• The world's most successful entrepreneurs didn't have a blockbuster ideas; they just took existing concepts and made them better, or exposed them to more people.
  
• Opportunity is exposed in your language and your thought processes, as well as other people's language.
  
• Failure cracks open new roads.
  
• Quitting only happens when you give up on your dream.