As I’m sure you know, people can be quite unpleasant on the internet. Anyone with even the vaguest public profile (and they don’t come much vaguer than mine) will find themselves on the receiving end of a wide variety of name calling and abuse, and I’ve had my fair share of it.

 Now this isn’t really upsetting or distressing. Occasionally it’s amusing, but most of the time it’s just boring. Internet trolls are disappointingly unimaginative, and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it all now…or at least I thought I had until  a couple of weeks ago when  I came across an accusation that temporarily restored by faith in the great keyboard tapping public…

John Harrison is an Intergalactic terrorist!  

 Yes! If you’re going to be accused of something bad, that’s what you want isn’t it? No point in being criticised for something pathetic and wishy washy  like not knowing what you’re talking about or giving poor customer service. Any idiot can do that. But Intergalactic Terrorism…now that’s something to write home about. A bit of proper infamy at last. Public Enemy No.1. Sadly my excitement at all this attention was pretty short-lived when I realised that they weren’t talking about me at all.

You see, for reasons that I can’t quite comprehend, the writers of the latest Star Trek film, Into Darkness,  have named the villain (played by Benedict Cumberbatch)  John Harrison. Why would you do that? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had the name all my life and I’m quite happy with it.  It’s a perfectly serviceable name for a purveyor of the finest wit and wisdom. That’s me by the way,  in case you were wondering! If you dispense legal advice, tot up balance sheets or sell suits it’s a name you can’t really go wrong with. I know people that have it who do all three. But surely you expect something a bit more menacing for  the source of intergalactic terror. Did they just open the phone book at random? They should have asked Sylvester Stalone; he knows how to name a nemesis…Apollo Creed, Ivan Drago…they’re the sort of names you want.  Not John bloody Harrison. Anyway, according to reviews, Cumberbatch (whose real name would have been a far better choice) steals the show, so I don’t suppose it really matters.

Rather surprisingly for someone who rarely ventures anywhere interesting, this is not my first encounter with the world of Star Trek. A few years ago, I looked round from my seat at a film premiere I was attending to find Sulu  (Or George Takei as his friends call him) sitting behind me. And then I was out and about  a few months ago when Jean Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) pulled up alongside me at some traffic lights – not in the Starship Enterprise as you might imagine, but in an equally impressive Rolls Royce.

So by the time John Harrison – Intergalactic Terrorist came along I was beginning to think that maybe Star Trek was trying to tell me something.  Perhaps there might be  a message there for people with two feet planted firmly on mother earth that I should try to tap in to. Okay, I’m getting a bit carried away here, but it did cause me to think back to all those Star Trek TV episodes and films, and it did throw something up which could save you a great deal of time money and heartache.

Do you remember what the mission of Starship Enterprise was?…

To boldly go where no man has gone before.   

 And in a way, that’s what a lot of entrepreneurs set out to do. They become obsessed with creating a brand new product or service, or with making inroads into uncharted territories and markets. They believe that the big pay off  goes to those who move first and fastest. This is rarely the case, in fact studies show completely the opposite – that the bulk of the spoils go to those who stand back a little – and watch.

A 1993 paper  by Golder and Tellis found almost half of  market pioneers failed. Of those that survived, their average market share was lower than their competitors. The study also showed that the companies achieving much greater long term success were ‘fast followers’. In Golder and Tellis study, these companies started up an average thirteen years later than the pioneers!

What this means is that ‘boldly going where no man has gone before’ doesn’t usually create an advantage – and certainly not in business. The first to market usually come unstuck, and there are very few situations where a ‘late-comer’ can’t move in and prosper. The reasons why this happens are plain to see.

If we go back to Star Trek for a moment (fiction I know, but the same principle applies) each new world the Enterprise enters presents new challenges and dangers. Because ‘no man has gone there before’, solutions have to be created from scratch and ‘on the hoof’. Mistakes are made and  progress is slow. It takes time and energy. There are casualties and setbacks. It makes for entertaining drama for a TV show, but is that what you really want in real life? I’d suggest not.

Now imagine there was another spaceship – let’s call it The Opportunist, following Enterprise around at a discreet distance. It would be able to monitor Enterprise’s progress in safety, following it into areas which appeared to be safe and heavy with potential, learn from it’s mistakes and stay clear of areas where the Enterprise crew got into trouble and took casualties. It wouldn’t make for very entertaining TV, but as a plan for surviving and prospering in the real world it seems to make a lot more sense.

Cavalier-style pioneering is fine if you have limitless resources to steamroller through the inevitable pitfalls which anyone breaking new ground will encounter. But few entrepreneurs are in that position. For them (us) a better strategy is to keep watch as others ‘boldly go’, learn from the mistakes they make, avoid the areas where resistance is too fierce, and then quickly follow where there appears to be a proven opportunity.

And what do you do then?

Well  for that you could do far worse than take a leaf out of the makers of Star Trek’s book.  The Star Trek story has now been running in various guises for 47 years. There have been 727 TV episodes and 11 movies.  The lesson? When you find something that works, milk it for all it’s worth. There will always be others ‘boldly going’. Watch what they’re doing, but never lose sight of the fact that the real money today is in what’s proven and working.

Best Wishes

John Harrison – Intergalactic Terrorist (Well I can dream!)

P.S    A question for you to finish. How many ears does Mr Spock have?

The answer is three – a left  ear, a right ear, and space the final fron…

I’ll get my coat!

 

* My latest book ‘Why Didn’t They Tell Me? – 99 Shameless Success Secrets They Don’t Teach You At Eton, Harrow Or Even The Classiest Comprehensive’ is now published. Go to www.streetwisenews.com/why for full details.