Lesson Thirty-Eight: Your Box

You are on the verge of uncovering an incredible opportunity.

You are about to revolutionize your industry. You could be the first to do it. Your customers will love you for it, your staff will be invigorated, and you’ll be rewarded with fabulous wealth.

You are about to have a break-through idea.

It’s right there. All you have to do is open your eyes to it.

You see, practically every business operates within the confining box created by the rules of its industry. And contrary to what your gym teacher told you in third grade, playing by the rules is not what you should do. Abiding by rules ensures fair competition. But who said business should be fair? Unfair competition, with the advantage favouring you, is what you want. Don’t you?

Right now the values you hold and the way your business operates are virtually the same as the values your competition holds and the way they operate. You may have different names, different advertising, different claims, but you’re probably more similar than different.

You’re both in the box. And the more competitors you have, the more crowded it’s getting. The bigger ones are hoarding most of the space, and the rest are fighting and jockeying for their little piece of turf.

It’s depressing.

This opportunity I’m telling you about isn’t inside that box. It’s outside and you can’t see it from in there.

The first thing you have to do is smash your way out. You have to challenge the values and assumptions of your industry. Question down to the foundation of how you do what you do, for whom you do it, and why they buy it. You have to begin to see the box before you can break your way out.

It’s not easy getting out of your box. Your competitors, and even your peers, don’t want you to get out. You validate them by staying in it.

But it’s time. Are you ready?



Principles of Persuassion by Shane Spark