Some of the people behind the success of these brands, however, fail to realize how much impact luck plays in achieving success the first time around. What often happens is once they get a taste of success, they drown into a state of complacency, pat themselves on the back while saying “I have what it takes to be a great property developer,” and decide to venture into creating another real estate brand.
After failing to achieve the same impressive results, it is at this point when they realize how much of a mere lightning strike their initial success was. The reason why? They probably gave too much credit on their own efforts, not realizing that the circumstances surrounding their latest venture have largely varied from what they experienced the first time they decided to go on a business.
Lightning or electricity?
What I want to emphasize here is there’s a very huge difference between the kind of companies that get lucky and earn one shot of good fortune and companies that can go the other route and generate success through hard work.
Here’s a classic example I often love to use to illustrate my point. Look at Microsoft and Apple, two giant companies who have had their own share of the limelight in the past 20 years.
Bill Gates’ Microsoft invented Windows and in a few years’ time, it fetched him billions of dollars worth of business. It was a lightning strike, to say the least. It was phenomenal during that time, and it was a feat nobody ever thought would be done again in history.
But here’s my question: was Microsoft ever able to achieve another kind of breakthrough after that? You are most definitely right, the answer is a resounding “no.” Yes, they did a marvelous job earning billions of dollars in business from Windows, but they never had another hit as huge as that.
While Microsoft was enjoying the stardom and all the attention, Apple Inc. was busy trying to make hits one after another. The company was able to create hits not just in computers, but also in music. They introduced the iPod and the entire market went crazy. They tweaked it a bit and came up with the iPhone (and everybody loved it). Later on, they came out with the iPad and changed the way the entire world looked at computers and tablets.
Then, there’s the other kind of entrepreneur like the people from Google, who started with a mere search engine, got stiff competition from a major industry player, then created Gmail. They followed it up with other quirky stuff like Google Maps and many others more. Did they succeed every single time? Of course, not. Then, they introduced Android to fuel up the smartphone wars, and look at them now. Nobody could argue that they are giving Apple a good fight, right?
Knowing what route to take
There is a huge difference between companies that rely on lightning strikes and those who know how to use their assets to generate electricity.
Real estate developers often look at property development from a business perspective and tend to overlook the gains they can earn from the standpoint of design. Don’t get me wrong, there’s an awful lot of people who continue to earn huge paydays by taking the business route. However, what you need to realize is that the design perspective is one that does not depend on market research.
Doing so enables you to generate ideas based on what’s new and possible for human beings—for your target markets, at least—rather that what is a profitable business model. Market research never leads to innovations or trends. If you want to get ahead of the competition, you need to be the trend leader, the trendsetter, and not the follower.
A lot of times, what happens is developers start thinking about their business model before they get a good grasp of one singular great idea. Many other industry players operate on this same principle. They create industrial capacity before they even create their ideas, then find themselves shocked that their products become quickly commodified, and their brands fall behind, or worse, die.
Remember the time when Nokia used to be hot? Nokia was a design-driven company, correct. They used to have the very best designs for user interface for phones. They looked invincible, at some point. Nobody could touch them. And then, the iPhones and the Samsung Galaxy smartphones came along and basically shifted the design medium to a place Nokia couldn’t go effectively. And that spelled doom for Nokia as it promptly fell off the map.
That’s the same principle that applies to real estate brands. The best way to get things started is to look at what you want to achieve, map out your strategies, re-assess your tools, and choose what path, what differentiator you’d want to take. Let hard work pay off its dues, generate electricity rather than pray for lightning to strike. Believe me, the journey is easy once you get all these things sorted out.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]