Some people suffer from one of the stickiest myths of entrepreneurship: the first-mover advantage.
Friends and acquaintances frequently consult me about new business ideas that excite them. But once they inevitably research their new venture and discover that someone else had the same idea, already took it to market, and their enthusiasms sag like a deflated balloon.
These people suffer from one of the stickiest myths of entrepreneurship: the first-mover advantage, or the idea that the first person to develop an idea and bring it to market will automatically be most successful.
I’m tired of seeing this myth plant seeds of doubt in passionate, young entrepreneurs. The economists who wrote the original paper on the first-mover advantage back in 1988 released a follow-up article that disproves some of their previous claims.
It’s time entrepreneurs realized that having an idea or getting a product to market first isn’t what matters — it’s having the right team and drive to pull it off.