Pioneers Get Shot — Second Best Is Very Often Far More Profitable

If you watch any of the old Western movies, there is a common theme in all of them that’s just as true today: pioneers often get arrows in the back. Among Silicon Valley high-tech firms, there is a variation of this that says there is a dangerous bleeding edge beyond the cutting edge of innovation.

Yes, pioneers have the greatest opportunities to stake a claim or find the motherlode, but they also take the greatest risks. Once they have found gold, oil, or water, it’s all too easy for someone to set up shop right next to them and tap into the same source from an adjoining field, with none of the risk or cost associated with the pioneers’ venture.

Being in any market early is risky and costs twice as much as it will cost the next guy to enter the same market. Far better to be the settler who comes along and enjoys the fruits of the valley after the pioneer has rid it of dangers.

I was not the first person to put together a monthly package for martial-arts school owners, but I was the first guy to get it right and charge a premium fee. Later several other people came into the business, all with shameless copies of my product and all at a lower price. I am sure they made every bit as much money as I did and without any of the development costs.