Why it's better not to chase your dreams if you want to be successful

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The Norwegian billionaire's rule of life.

Although the suggestion not to follow the dream sounds paradoxical, the creator of this principle can be trusted: the Norwegian billionaire Petter Stordalen made his fortune from scratch. In the book Hurray, Monday! 10 rules for living with drive”The entrepreneur shares the principles that helped him achieve success.

The book was published in Russian by Alpina Publisher. Lifehacker publishes an excerpt from Chapter 4 on the importance of flexible thinking.

Immediately after World War II, a Japanese man named Soichiro began producing motorized bicycles. In a small shed with an area of no more than 16 square meters, he and several of his assistants converted old military radio units into motors. The bikes were cheap - a welcome fact for the weak economy of post-war Japan - and, due to their small size, fit perfectly into Tokyo's chaotic traffic. They quickly gained popularity, the production of new, improved models was launched, and together with the business, Soichiro's dream began to arise.

In 1959 he made up his mind. He has declared war on the American motorcycle giants.

In the US, they love everything big. Motorcycles too. Large, heavy road giants such as Harley-Davidson became the national symbol of the country as early as 1903. They were the technical embodiment of masculinity, freedom and patriotism. It was completely useless to enter the American market with a motorcycle based on a radio unit.

And Soichiro created a larger and more powerful motorcycle. And as soon as this heavyweight motorcycle was ready, its prototype was immediately shipped to Los Angeles. The cargo was accompanied by three employees who were supposed to promote the product in the American market.

The plan was clear, what could have happened?

Many things.

In the motorcycle market, all seats were taken, they were told. None of the salons the Japanese approached agreed to take their motorcycle. They sold only a few of them, which were immediately out of order. The Americans were as excited about the Japanese and their motorcycles as a paratrooper was about a hole in a parachute, and Soichiro's dream was also in free fall.

But.

In order to quickly move around Los Angeles, the Japanese took with them their SuperCubs, small fifty-cubic motorcycles, which are more correctly called mopeds. These lightweight motorcycles were specifically made for densely populated Japanese cities, not for millionaire cities like Los Angeles, with their long distances and wide highways. And the spurned Japanese rode their SuperCubs down the narrow alleys of Hollywood just for fun.

One weekend they were stopped by a passer-by who was interested in light motorcycles. Another one came up behind him and asked where he could get such a thing. Over the next weekend, several more people announced their interest. As a courtesy, the Japanese ordered several motorcycles for those who wanted to buy them.

Over the next two years, orders increased significantly. Finally, the number of SuperCub buyers in Hollywood has grown so much that even Sears has announced its intention to purchase a large batch of mopeds. But Soichiro ignored this interest. He continued to promote a heavyweight motorcycle specifically designed for the American market.

Another year has passed - there has been no progress in sales.

But he continued. He was firmly convinced that his motorcycle was so good that it would one day win the hearts of Americans.

Years passed, showing failure after failure. In the end, Soichiro came close to bankruptcy. At the last moment, already desperate, he admitted that he should change his strategy. Soichiro gave up selling the heavyweight motorcycle and switched to promoting the SuperCub.

And everything worked out.

SuperCub sales skyrocketed. They sold so well that some American motorcycle manufacturers had to leave the market. In 1975, Soichiro sold five million motorcycles, more than any other manufacturer in the United States with the exception of Harley and BMW.

The surname of the Japanese Soichiro is Honda, today his company is the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer, and the SuperCub is the world's best-selling motorized mode of transport.

But still, it did not work out right away.

Of course, the million dollar question is why it took so long for Soichiro to come to this decision?

Many people still argue about this. Honda is far from the only one. Do we humans have an amazing ability to ignore the opportunities that arise in front of our noses?

One day I received an e-mail from one of my friends. It included a link to a YouTube video in which two teams - three in white and three in black - were throwing a basketball between them. My task was to count how many passes the white team would make. The team in black also threw the ball, and the players moved around the field, so this task required concentration.

I watched the video and sent a letter to my friend, in my opinion, with the correct answer.

“The number is correct,” he wrote. "How do you like the gorilla?"

I must admit I thought I misunderstood something.

What gorilla?

I haven't seen any gorilla. I watched the video again.

A man dressed as a gorilla walked through a group of players. I just didn't notice him. And, as it turned out, I'm not alone. This test is part of an experiment in which 200 Harvard students participated, they were all given the same task as I was. Most of them counted the number of passes correctly, but only half of the participants noticed the gorilla.

If you know that it is there, it is, of course, impossible to miss. She's not even hiding. At some point, she stops, punches herself in the chest, and then disappears.

And yet half of us did not see her.

This phenomenon, the tendency of our brain to miss the most obvious, has always amazed me. First of all, because it is very closely related to what I do: the whole business, in principle, is built on seeing something that others have missed, and then using it. Therefore, stories like the history of Honda make me worry. Not seeing an opportunity knocking on the door is my main fear.

But this happens over and over again.

There is a famous test that illustrates this. The so-called nine-point problem. It consists in connecting all points using four straight lines:

Only a few can cope with this test. The problem is that the solution to the problem is not where you think it is. We need to think "" as we like to repeat. By the way, this already worn-out expression appeared precisely thanks to this task.

But thinking outside the box is difficult. Remember the anecdote about the man who lost his car keys and is looking for them under the lamp? The wife asks why he is looking only there, and he replies: "Well, it's light here!" If we think we know where the answer lies, we are limiting our thought process, which is so difficult to interfere with.

A similar framework appears before us in situations when it is necessary to make some important choice. For example, about what we want to work with. We dream of becoming a part of something big, actively developing, being in the thick of things, being their direct participant. We are attracted by the pace and new thinking. Well, money.

That is why the very best business minds are clustered around high technology. This is where opportunities open up.

Everyone knows this.

Do you know where hungry young business minds don't go?

The publishing business.

In 2014, I met a man named Yunas Forsang. In fact, Yunas was a rock musician, he wore a leather jacket at any time of the year, did not take off his dark glasses even indoors and always looked as if he had just left a party. Incredibly, he worked as a journalist for the Dagens Næringliv newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (Business Today), Norway's largest newspaper on business, economics and finance. - Approx. per. … We met when Gunhild was the author's wife. for the first time publicly admitted that she was seriously ill, and he wrote an article about it.

After a while, he came up with the idea to write a joint book. I never had this in my plans, it was completely beyond my competence, but still I allowed myself to be persuaded.

We started working on June 1, 2015.

After 40 days, he brought me the finished manuscript. During this time, we not only became friends, but also. When I asked him which publishing house we would take it to, he replied that he would like us to publish it ourselves. I didn't like this idea very much. But he insisted. He said that we need to start our own small publishing house, which, instead of publishing hundreds of books in just one fall, as happens in large publishers, will focus on our only book.

- And who should we invite to our mini-publishing house? I asked.

“We only need one person,” he replied. - Magnus.

I knew who Magnus was. His name is Rönningen, a mutual friend of ours. Magnus is an adventurer living life to the fullest, after a couple of furious business investments, he immigrated to Spain. There he lay at the bottom, grew his hair and spent time in the saddle, galloping through the sun-drenched endless fields of Andalusia. Well, he was also a PR genius.

But he didn’t understand books at all.

Of course, I should give the book to Aschehoug, Gyldendal or Cappelen Damm. These are publishers with a long history. They published Ibsen. Hamsun. Björnebu. Knausgora. It was sheer madness to put my life revelations in the hands of a retired rocker and a Spanish cowboy. But at the same time, there was something about these guys that made me think: if any of this works out, then at least it will be more fun with them than with Aschehoug.

I gave them the book. And they, of course, did almost everything wrong.

The day after the book was published, I was at Sula Airport in Stavanger. It turns out that their bookstore doesn't have my book. Why? Because my comrades managed to release the book in a format that is not suitable for bookshelves in stores! In addition, they ordered paper of such quality that, due to the weight, it only cost 150 kronor to mail the book. For your information: the share of the “publishing house” in the price was 200 kroons.

In their defense, I will say that they have done a lot that reputable publishers would never have done. For example, they discovered that books were rarely pre-ordered, so they launched a massive advertising campaign before the book hit stores, and then proudly announced that our book had broken the national pre-sales record. It worked. Many newspapers picked up this news, so when the book did come out, a halo was already shining over it. And success is the best sales engine.

They also developed a PR strategy for several years ahead. They typed my e-mail address in the book and wrote that I would pay a million kroons to the reader who would suggest me the most interesting business idea. They decided that those who wanted to try their luck would not dare to send me a letter without buying my book before. They appointed the issuance of a million right before the publication of the book, which again spurred the interest of the press.

Sales were good, with the book ranking among bestsellers throughout the fall and almost until Christmas, although it never became a super bestseller. But when other publishers switched to the next hundred new books to be released in the spring, my amateur publishers Knoll and Tott Knoll and Tott are the Scandinavian names of the heroes of the Katzenjammer Kids comic, created in 1897 by Rudolph Dirk and still published today. - Approx. per.”There were no other editions. So they continued to promote our book. With all my might.

Here, too, it was about trust. The guys knew that they had a chance to prove themselves.

To date, more than 200,000 copies of the book have been sold. Kapital magazine named her the best-selling biography in the history of Norway.

Published by two amateurs.

After the publication of my book, they continued to engage in publishing, accepting only a few books a year. They have several more successful projects. They got rid of the biggest rookie mistakes. In the fall of 2017, we were having dinner together and I asked them how things were going. They said they got Petter Northug's autobiography and shared some plans with me.

That evening we agreed that I would join the company as an investor. I asked each of them to write the approximate cost of the company on a napkin, without showing the numbers to each other. I did that too. When we turned over the napkins, Knoll & Tott agreed to my price, we shook hands and worked out a plan.

I have to admit I didn't have big ambitions. I have to do something with these guys. That's all. And we started to discuss. The book industry has been stagnant for many years. Three major publishers owned the entire distribution chain, from warehouses to stores. They controlled everything. So it was not very profitable for small publishers to work.

We didn't know how the big publishers would react to our appearance. If they decided to oppose us, for example, by not accepting books from our publishing house for sale, we would have had a very difficult time. To secure a place on store shelves, we needed “big” writers. After all, book chains are just as dependent on bestsellers. And most of the books at that time were sold by the author of detective stories Jorn Lier Horst.

Jorn's books were sold in excess of 500,000 a year, only half of Gyldendal's fiction turnover.

After some hesitation, he agreed to become a partner of our publishing house. We then contacted a few more popular writers and key contributors from other publishers. Almost everyone we asked agreed to join the new business. The book publishing industry was stagnant, and changes were ripe for themselves. And many were ready to contribute to the change. This was not an elaborate strategy. It was just that an opportunity appeared, and, fortunately, we were open enough to notice and use it.

We brought new energy to the industry, we destroyed the foundations. We lacked experience and weight, but that was our advantage.

In many areas, it wouldn't work that way. For example, in technologies where absolutely everything is new, we would not have achieved such an effect. But in the book industry, where the leading players were over 100 years old, an opportunity opened up that everyone could see.

Fortunately, we were the ones who noticed her.

And I'm sure I know why.

The nine-point problem has several solutions. And they all go beyond the square that these points form. Outside the "box". Here's one solution:

The fact that this problem can be solved only if you think more broadly, “outside the box,” does not mean at all that this should always be done. Thinking outside the box is as foolish as looking for your car keys only where it's dark. Say what you like, they can also lie under the lantern.

The point is to do both. I would advise not just to think “outside the box”, but to open it. Expand your horizon to see new opportunities, even where you would never have thought to look for them. But in order to achieve this, one cannot be limited to one goal.

Ours looks like a flashlight. They can illuminate a fairly large space, but as soon as a target appears - the task on which we are concentrating - the light is focused on only one point, as in the beam of a searchlight. Everything else remains in the shadows. In the invisible gorilla experiment, our focus is on counting passes, and all other information is completely overlooked.

And the gorilla becomes invisible.

The fact that we did not notice the man in the gorilla suit is not so important. The problem arises when the information we need passes by the radars. When we miss something that we should pay attention to.

"Follow your dream!" is the most common advice given to people around the world. When people who have achieved something in life are asked what advice they would give to those who want to succeed, they answer that way. And the fact that these words are often repeated by very successful, admirable people, for example, Walt Disney, they gain weight.

The only problem is that this is terrible advice.

A dream only shows you one way. It is as if you are setting a flag on the horizon so that only that which leads you to the goal is fixed in your memory. Because of this, you perceive only a small part of the information that arises during your journey. You do not notice the opportunities that are opening up before you.

In addition, as mentioned, people have a tendency to think within certain frameworks. As in the nine-point problem. We think “inside the box”.

And then the problem arises: if all the great minds of a generation are investing in technology because they all believe that this is where the greatest opportunities arise, if all engineers and entrepreneurs are fighting to create the next great application, then this means that competition is increasing. And you need to be smarter and faster than all of them. You have to be smarter than the best in Silicon Valley. You need huge financial resources to keep up the pace of the competition. Companies like Apple, Google, Amazon, Spotify will be your competitors.

I cannot compete with them.

I'm not rich enough and not smart enough.

So I invest in an area that they are not interested in.

In the Norwegian book industry, you don't need to be smarter than the Silicon Valley smart ones. It is enough to be a little better than those who already work in this area. I’m not saying that it’s easy to make and sell books. If there is a field in the world in which many smart, well-read people work, it is the book business. But let's be honest: these are two different things.

Those who have already achieved it advise you to follow your dream. The statements of such people should be treated with caution. After all, they have put together a story about their success, about their ascent - and they are sharing this simple recipe with everyone. In the shadows are not only the accidents that have benefited them, but all those who followed their recipe - and failed.

Therefore, you should not follow your dream.

Set goals for yourself, but don't limit yourself to just one of them. Dreams are like love. They are developing. They may suddenly turn out to be something that you find along the way at the moment when you least expect it. The idea that there is only one huge love in the world is not just wrong - because of it, you will not notice a little love that will develop and grow.

never dreamed of becoming an electric car manufacturer. He didn't even have a definite goal. He thought broadly instead of concentrating, and as a result he discovered the possibilities that opened before him. The results of these capabilities are PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, Hyperloop, and Neuralink.

Look at your industry: where is everyone going? Is there something interesting for you if you go the other way? Or will you roll? Or maybe there is some old sleepy industry that you can breathe life into?

Maybe this is not at all what you are dreaming about, but something that inspires you now, when you think about it, inspires precisely because you feel: the opportunity presented to you will require from you the inner fire that is in you. was not a few seconds ago.

Often, you just need to rebuild your thinking a little - and opportunities will be everywhere.

I am sure that I have achieved success precisely because I never had any particular dream. I never dreamed of building shopping centers. I never dreamed of owning hotels. And none of the three of us who now manage a publishing house dreamed of doing the publishing business. And so I think we were the ones who saw this opportunity when it arose. If we dreamed of becoming a publisher, we would definitely think and act like everyone else in the industry.

And here's what's interesting: when robots take our jobs, we will have to spend time on something. Someone will have to write all these stories that we will read, listen to or watch in the future on the latest high-tech gadgets.

Do not follow the dream, and then something will happen that you did not even dare to dream about.

Petter Stordalen's rules are clear and easy to use. The billionaire shows first-hand how the principles he proposed help to achieve success and notice things that others do not see.