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The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

Written by: Seth Godin

Article Overview: Patience. Google was a very good search engine for two years before you started using it. The iPod was a dud.

The secret of the web (hint: it's a virtue)

Patience.

Google was a very good search engine for two years before you started using it.

The iPod was a dud.

I wrote Unleashing the Ideavirus 8 years ago. A few authors tried similar ideas but it didn't work right away. So they gave up. Boingboing is one of the most popular blogs in the world because they never gave up.

The irony of the web is that the tactics work really quickly. You friend someone on Facebook and two minutes later, they friend you back. Bang.

But the strategy still takes forever. The strategy is the hard part, not the tactics.

I discovered a lucky secret the hard way about thirty years ago: you can outlast the other guys if you try. If you stick at stuff that bores them, it accrues. Drip, drip, drip you win.

It still takes ten years to become a success, web or no web. The frustrating part is that you see your tactics fail right away. The good news is that over time, you get the satisfaction of watching those tactics succeed right away.

The trap: Show up at a new social network, invest two hours, be really aggressive with people, make some noise and then leave in disgust.

The trap: Use all your money to build a fancy website and leave no money or patience for the hundred revisions you'll need to do.

The trap: read the tech blogs and fall in love with the bleeding-edge hip sites and lose focus on the long-term players that deliver real value.

The trap: sprint all day and run out of energy before the marathon even starts.

The media wants overnight successes (so they have someone to tear down). Ignore them. Ignore the early adopter critics that never have enough to play with. Ignore your investors that want proven tactics and predictable instant

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Article Tags: 8 years, bleeding edge, disgust, drip drip drip, dud, facebook, fancy website, google, investors, ipod, irony, marathon, overnight successes, patience, revisions, satisfaction, sprint, success web, thirty years, two minutes



Related Forum Posts
Re: How Much Of Ourselves Should We Give Away...? - what a great topic david start here, it reminds me of a movie i watched resently called KUNFU PANDA. The movie is all about keeping secret. there were two secret kept: the secret of dragon scroll and secret of cooking, later the secret was revealed which was no secret kept. the reason am relating this movie with the topic is that, you can give out 90% for free and hold on to 10% secret which will make you have more customer and traffic. I know some marketers both the internet and offline that will give you 100% product for free but whenever they want to sell to you the little one you will be glad to respond because of their gesture. What I would like to say is that giving out most of the product is a great marketing strategy to win more buyers to your future products.
Re: Can you read body language and convert it into a sale? - [quote="Kevin":2b3i4dqy] So what is your husband's secret? Can you give a specific example of what he does in order to win over customers?[/quote:2b3i4dqy] I don't know his secret, he was born this way, and has 40 years of training. He tried to teach me and coaching me, giving me opening lines, and we did illustrations of real conversation. No luck. He knows how to talk to people, and how to read them, even if it's over the phone, he knows exactly what to say and how to say it, he always tells me "you shouldn't say this, you should say it like this". I am amazed every time.
Trade secrets - Hi BizLoanz4u, I think I've only had a non-disclosure agreement with my web designer and I've never even felt the need to have one with my business coach when we were discussing my ideas. In fact, I knew that if he talked about my business with other people, it'd probably be in my best interests. When people talk about your idea, it helps provide free exposure and possibily even attracts others to get involved with your business. I believe that a person could probably have the most original idea, then write up the best business plan and even post it on the web or leave it on a college campus library table and the following would hold true: 1.) The idea or trade secret probably isn't original or a secret. 2.) The majority of people who stumble upon the "confidential" business plan would NOT act on it. 3.) The few who dare to take the risk and implement the idea would fail. 4.) And there's probably a better chance of winning the lottery or getting attacked by a shark or hit by lightning than for a person to find your idea/trade secret and turn it into a successful business.
Re: E-mail vs. real mail - The funny thing is that I open all junk mail I get in my real mail box. Even if I know it's junk I still open it just in case I am wrong and maybe it is something I need. However, I don't think twice about deleting any email that has even a hint of junk to it.
Why women's networking associations fail - I've been involved in a lot of women's networking associations in leadership positions and have found that most of them are failing or struggling. WHy? Because no matter how good the idea, most fail to recognize that 1) volunteer run associations are essentially trying to herd cats. most volunteers have great intentions and very little work ethic when it comes to getting things done. 2) women, especially those who are new in business, forget that men still run the world, so by limiting their exposure to only women's groups, they lose out on all the other great resources and ideas available to them. 3) women naturally become social creatures. while some bits of business actually go around, most networking groups become social clubs by virtue of the way women interact with each other. These are just some of the reasons. I'd like to hear what other women think... TheRainmaker


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