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Build it and will they come? A business tip from Thomas Edison
Written by: George C. HuangArticle Overview: If you build it, will they come? Well, maybe. But don't count on it or you might be waiting an awful long time. This vignette from the life of the great inventor, Thomas Edison, illustrates this brilliantly (yes, pun intended!)
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Free Download - Distraction Control: The most important skill for consistent high-performance in your business By George C. Huang |
Build it and will they come? A business tip from Thomas Edison
In the baseball movie Field of Dreams, the main character, Ray Kinsella, hears a voice in his cornfield tell him, “If you build it, he will come.” He becomes convinced that he should build a baseball field in the middle of a remote corn field. Shortly thereafter, the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven Chicago White Sox players who were banned from baseball for throwing the 1919 World Series appear upon the field.
The phrase from the movie, “Build it and he will come” has been popularized in the business world as “build it and they (customers) will come.”
Many a visionary entrepreneur has been inspired by that “light bulb” moment and arrived with the next million dollar idea that is going to change the world. Driven by sheer inspiration, they proceed to throw all of their time, energy, and resources (read: ‘money’) at developing their product or service. They think that if they build a better mousetrap, people will flock in droves to buy it. “Build it and they will come.”
Well, speaking of “light bulb” moments, let’s see what we can learn from one of the world’s greatest inventors, Thomas Alva Edison. Although the electric light bulb was the invention, which brought him great fame and fortune, Edison was a prolific inventor, whose efforts also included the invention of the phonograph. Ultimately, Edison received a record 1,093 patents. Of these, his very first was for the electrographic vote-recorder.
THE ELECTROGRAPHIC WHAT?
While working as a telegrapher in Boston, Edison transcribed copy about congressional proceedings. During these proceedings, voting on the passage of bills was taken by roll-call; after the name of each senator or representative was announced, each would respond with a “yea” or “nay” and the vote was recorded one by one.
Edison noticed how much time was wasted by this process and decided to build a device that would automatically tally the votes. Based on the telegraph, his invention was a technological success and on June 1, 1869, Edison was awarded U.S. Patent #90646 for the Electrographic Vote-Recorder.
Great idea, but is it time to laugh all the way to the bank?
Curiously, neither the Massachusetts legislature nor the United States Congress was interested in the vote-recorder. As Gene Adair recounts in his book Thomas Alva Edison: Inventing the Electric Age:
“As Edison learned, it was an accepted practice in such bodies to filibuster, a process in which lawmakers who oppose a particular bill use various delaying tactics to block its passage. In one of these tactics, opponents of the legislation will demand time-consuming roll-call votes on one irrelevant motion after another. Edison's machine, by speeding up the vote-taking process, would blunt the effectiveness of this political weapon—something most legislators were reluctant to do.
Edison vowed right then that he would only make inventions for which there was a ready demand. In later years, he counted his experience with the vote recorder as one of the most important lessons he ever learned.”
PRE-SELL: THE ANTIDOTE TO BEING BLINDED BY THE FLASH OF THE "LIGHT BULB."
In my experience, I’ve seen far too many entrepreneurs and small business owners develop and offer a new product or service, only to find out that no one is particularly interested in using it, much less paying for it.
So, the next time you have a brilliant “light bulb” idea, think of Thomas Edison. Then go out and find out from your potential buyers if they’d want to buy your next world-changing idea. It’s a simple concept called “pre-selling.”
Sell the concept of the product or service before you invest in building it. If no one expresses any significant interest, refine your offering and/or your approach to presenting its value. If there is interest, you’ll have seed money to develop your offering. And you’ll know first-hand what to build into the product/service because your early buyers have told you.
"Hell, there are no rules here—we're trying to accomplish something."
—Thomas Edison
Well, there is perhaps just one rule Thomas: Unless you want to be successful in business by accident, “build it and they will come” works only if you know they want it in the first place!
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About the Author: George C. Huang RSS for George's articles - Visit George's website  Click here to visit George's website   Abandon Your Business PlanIf You Want to Take Your Business to the Next Level Build it and will they come A business tip from Thomas Edison Get rid of your customers immediately Is your business a kitchen table or barstool Distraction Control The most important skill for consistent highperformance in your business |
Related Forum Posts
Re: How did we Live before Electricity
- Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison - USA heros!
Re: What are you doing if o have a bad day?
- Some days I just feel like doing absolutely nothing. It doesn't mean I'm having a bad day or anything, but I just don't feel like doing anything productive towards my business. In fact, mornings are the worse for me. I work much better in the evenings for some reason.
If things just didn't seem to go right for me, or I felt that everything I'm doing isn't getting me anywhere, I'll just take a break from it and do something else. Watch TV, work out, play video games, or just call it a night and start fresh in the morning. I do most of my thinking when I'm laying in bed, so the latter option usually works best for me.
Bad days are going to happen, so there's no sense in trying to avoid them. I say embrace them! There's always something to learn even through failure. Don't look at it as failing, but learn what to avoid or change in what you're doing to become a success. Thomas Edison is a perfect example of this.
Re: Great start, but no finish
- My advise is FOCUS on your business.
Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy.
Concept is simple.
1- Have a good idea;
2- Build your business on it;
3- Monetize your business;
4- Promote it;
5- Build list of responsive customers;
6- Maintain You Business.
Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW.
Orxan
How do you know if you have a good idea?
- [quote="orxan":3118uboz]My advise is FOCUS on your business.
Focusing is the main factor to succeed on business. If you have a great idea, then follow it only, don't look anywhere else. It is especially essential in an online business. Because there are a lot of mind blowing sales letters promising millions dolllars or overnight success, people find it difficult to concentrate on one business and they lose their energy.
Concept is simple.
1- Have a good idea;
2- Build your business on it;
3- Monetize your business;
4- Promote it;
5- Build list of responsive customers;
6- Maintain You Business.
Focusing and not fearing from competition (instead you can learn from competitiors) are main tips of billionaires ,BTW.
Orxan[/quote:3118uboz]
Thanks orxan! But how do you know if you truly have a good idea or not? If we ask ourselves, we may be suffering from tunnel vision. On the other hand, friends/family may try to discourage us from pursuing a small business because of their own fears, while others will simply give us an empty "you can do it!" line.
Re: Search Engine Optimization
- Hi Thomas,
So what would you recommend? Hiring an SEO expert or simply trying your hand at doing it yourself?
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