1487: [Part 1] How to Beat the Competition by Steve Pavlina on Entrepreneurship

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[00:00:26] This is Optimal Work Daily. How to Beat the Competition. Part 1.

[00:00:31] By Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com

[00:00:35] In a recent forum thread about starting a new business, someone asked about the best way to handle competition.

[00:00:41] How do you ensure that your efforts will pay off instead of merely jumping into a giant pool with everyone else and being unable to stand out?

[00:00:49] My strategy for dealing with competition is the same no matter what field I work in.

[00:00:53] I'm sure you can apply it to your particular field as well, although there's a good chance you won't want to since it isn't easy.

[00:01:00] In fact, avoiding what's easy is precisely the solution.

[00:01:03] If you want to carve out a place in a crowded field, one of the best ways to do that is to tackle the hard problems within that particular field.

[00:01:11] The kinds of problems that quickly discourage other people and force them to give up.

[00:01:15] Hard problems attract few competitors because everyone flocks to the easy problems first.

[00:01:20] But if you can solve a hard problem, you can create something uniquely valuable that's difficult to duplicate.

[00:01:26] In fact, just being willing to go after the hard problems can set you apart from the crowd.

[00:01:31] I'll give you three personal examples.

[00:01:33] Games Business Example

[00:01:35] The first few computer games I released were very basic in design.

[00:01:39] They had some unique elements, but most were pretty generic looking.

[00:01:43] Lots of other people could have developed them.

[00:01:45] Those games never sold well, generating just a trickle of income.

[00:01:48] Then I took a different approach.

[00:01:50] I set a goal to create a game that would be truly original.

[00:01:54] Something that would have a very elegant, unique design.

[00:01:57] I spent four solid months designing this game, and the end product of all that work was a design doc that was only five pages long.

[00:02:05] Programming the game, making the levels, and doing the art, sound effects, and music only took two additional months.

[00:02:11] Many people could have programmed that game, but not many would have been able to come up with a design anything like it.

[00:02:17] The game's unique design and gameplay became a strong selling point, and it quickly carved out a niche for itself in the crowded puzzle game market.

[00:02:25] The game sold well, and won some awards too.

[00:02:28] I discontinued it in 2006, but I still get email from fans of the game today.

[00:02:33] Those four months of design work were very tough.

[00:02:36] I had to pursue many blind alleys and consider a vast field of possible options.

[00:02:40] There was no guarantee of even finding the type of solution I was looking for.

[00:02:45] After three months, it seemed like I'd made very little progress, but eventually everything converged to a very elegant design.

[00:02:52] Once the design was complete, even before any of the levels or other game assets were created, I knew I had something great.

[00:02:59] I chose to compete in the area of design because I didn't have the resources to compete in other areas.

[00:03:04] I couldn't code 3D graphics like John Carmack, and I didn't have the resources to compete with teams of professional artists, sound engineers, and musicians.

[00:03:13] My budget was pretty close to zero.

[00:03:15] I had to compete on the basis of creativity.

[00:03:18] As it turns out, coming up with a truly creative, elegant design is the hard problem of game development.

[00:03:24] You can throw tons of resources at art, music, and sound, and you'll get good results, but you cannot guarantee a positive result no matter how much money and how many resources you devote to design.

[00:03:36] You'd be amazed that games that seem very simple on the surface may have taken months or even years of hard design work.

[00:03:42] The wheel may seem like a simple invention, but for some early human, it was probably the solution to a particularly vexing problem.

[00:03:52] Blogging Example

[00:03:53] For this website, I decided to tackle the hard problems of personal development, namely trying to identify the hidden order beneath the surface chaos in our lives.

[00:04:02] Although the results may often look simple, the thought and effort that goes into this work is extremely challenging.

[00:04:08] You may notice that I rarely write about the easy problems of personal development, like how to get your computer to run faster, where you can download free ebooks, or how to save money on your mortgage.

[00:04:19] You'll find zillions of websites discussing those topics.

[00:04:22] Instead, I focus most of my energy on the high-level, timeless concepts.

[00:04:27] This is much harder work, but the upside is that it gives me an opportunity to make a unique contribution.

[00:04:33] Most people who try to do this kind of work for a while soon give up in frustration.

[00:04:37] It may look easy on the surface, but I assure you it is not.

[00:04:41] This is one reason my website continues to thrive in an increasingly crowded field.

[00:04:46] Just because this work is hard doesn't mean it's painful.

[00:04:49] Tackling hard problems can be extremely rewarding, especially when the solution benefits others.

[00:04:55] Book writing Example

[00:04:57] Hear that in tomorrow's episode.

[00:05:03] You just listened to part one of the post titled How to Beat the Competition by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com.

[00:05:11] This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

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[00:06:13] Steve was actually one of the very first authors that we started narrating here across all of our shows.

[00:06:18] He writes about personal development, as he mentioned, as well as money, health, relationships, business, and advice.

[00:06:25] You're going to hear his articles across all of our shows regularly, and we still haven't run out of content from him.

[00:06:30] Thank you so much for being a regular listener of this show and any or all of our other shows.

[00:06:35] That is, of course, what keeps us going.

[00:06:38] So have a great rest of your day, and I'll catch you back here tomorrow for the Sunday show, where we're going to have part two from Steve and where your optimal life awaits.

[00:06:45] We're going to have a great rest of the day.

[00:06:45] We'll see you next time.

[00:06:45] We'll see you next time.

[00:06:45] We'll see you next time.

[00:06:46] See you next time.

[00:06:46] Thank you.