THE MARKETMIND
Kinetic execution’s first component is represented by the outermost circle
—
the marketmind
—an understanding that the market cannot be forecast,
predicted, or tamed. No one can accurately say what challenges await in the
forest until you arrive. The marketmind
is like the stock market; no one can
predict market movements—not Wall Street advisors, financial planners, and
certainly not your average retail investor. As an entrepreneur, the best we can do
with the marketmind is engage it.
This is why “business-plan competitions” are about as accurate as monkeys
throwing darts at stock pages. Since markets can’t be housebroken to predictions,
why waste time trying to tame them in a 50 page dissertation? Gates, Dell, and
Jobs never had a business plan. And neither did I, and neither does kinetic
execution.
Peel away the business plan’s colorful charts and graphs and what remains is
a wild speculative gaggle scripted to paper, the business world’s
version of the
Drake equation, plus more variables thrown in for laughs. It’s the love child of
guesswork and dreaming, an aggregation of unassailable market variables
sugarcoated to constants. The truth is, when you take many unknowns and
arbitrarily put them to numbers, you get a worthless road map to Wonderland.
Seriously, your business plan is about as foretelling as Jim Cramer is at
pinpointing the S&P 500’s price next year. But hey, at least you spent six weeks
on a cute little binder that looks great at the bottom of the filing cabinet.
Anyhow, a business plan is more action-faking than execution because the
market is a collective mind representing millions. Nobody can predict how this
collective will react to a given stimulus:
your advertising, your product, your
customers’ use of the product, your customer service, your brand, your
packaging, your everything! This unpredictable collective makes fools of its
forecasters.
For example, sometimes I’ll read a news story profiling a new business and
I’ll make a quick viability judgment. Because the marketmind doesn’t give a shit
about my solitary opinion, I’m quickly proven wrong. Example: Turo (formerly
RelayRides.com
) is a peer-to-peer car network where your car can be rented to a
stranger. Personally, I’d never use it, and my impulse reaction is “no effin’ way.”
And yet, it leaves me scratching my head because
thousands use it all while
funded to the tune of $48 million.
And of course, my favorite example is my freshman book,
The Millionaire
Fastlane
. Several “publishing experts” said it would never sell, claiming it was too
long and broad for a specific genre. Others in the mediocrity mob likened
Fastlane
to my opinion of
Fifty Shades of Grey
: the book is crap and belongs at
the bottom of a birdcage. Ultimately, the marketmind proved them wrong,
pissing on their opinion while I sold millions’ worth.
Loud critics from cheap
seats can’t dissuade the marketmind.
History is littered with stories of individual opinions being crushed by the
marketmind. Stephen King’s first book,
Carrie
, which later morphed into several
movies, was rejected an astonishing thirty times. In fact, King thought it sucked
so bad it ended up in the trash, only to be salvaged by his wife.
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Likewise,
before
Star Wars
was released, several actors including the production
company’s board of directors stated that they hated the movie.
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Even Steven Spielberg wasn’t immune to individual opines as he was rejected
by the USC film school, not once or twice, but THREE TIMES. Later, USC would
award him an honorary degree subject to one condition set forth by Spielberg:
his rejector had to sign it!
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How’s that for a productocracy executing justice!?
I could write an entire book about similar stories where the marketmind
suffocates individual opinions. Google “famous singers rejected” and you’ll find
hours’ worth of reading. You see, the marketmind has the ultimate veto power,
over singular opinions of empowered individuals, including mine. This
unpredictability is why business plan authors cannot
predict market responses,
whether it’s a new start-up or a closing stock price. The ultimate judge and jury
of your ideas isn’t your mom, friends, or colleagues—
it’s the marketmind that
reacts to them
. And as an
UNSCRIPTED
,
Fastlane
entrepreneur, your first
execution task isn’t speculating on how the market might respond; it’s to engage
it (as cheaply as possible) and find out.
THE 3 As: ACT, ASSESS, ADJUST
Bruce Lee once said, "The stiffest
tree is most easily cracked, while the
bamboo or willow survives by bending in the wind." In business, you must be
like the bamboo which is kinetic execution’s next guiding principle;
act, assess,
and adjust.
These 3 As steer effort like a propeller (action), a tachometer (assess),
and a rudder (adjust direction). Remember, kinetic execution is
action before
answers
, situational and incremental problem-solving
graduated to resolve a
larger problem, which culminates into your business solution. “Action before
answers” means starting now—before you’re ready, before the right timing, and
before you know all the right steps. Again, kinetic execution is not business plans
or blueprints outlining every detail. On the contrary, it’s a dive into the abyss,
expecting a gauntlet riddled with problems and challenges. Some might call it
“winging it,” and that’s OK because the marketmind gives directional clues to
where you should be headed.
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