New entrepreneurs waste time perfecting their first product instead of focusing on customer transformation. A food company's initial product failed, but by iterating through multiple offerings and building a customer base, they eventually found success licensing ingredients to others. The breakthrough product might be your fourth, fifth, or ninth idea.
New entrepreneurs waste so much time thinking about their first product. A lot of entrepreneurs get stuck thinking about the first product that they take their eye off, what really matters, which is the transformation that you're creating for the customer. I have an investment in a food company that launched their first product and it totally bombed. And then their second product was like a mediocre success. Their third one was slightly more successful, but they discontinued it. But in the process, they created a base of ingredients that they ended up licensing to other businesses, and that became the business. New entrepreneurs will obsess so much about the first product and getting it to sell that they never actually get into the game of serving a group of people. But oftentimes, the thing that makes a business successful is not the first product or the second product or the third product. But along the way, you build up a customer base, you build up some brand reputation, and it's product four or five, or idea number nine. That is what puts you on the map and keeps you there. So rather than obsess over the right first product, it's just about getting into the game and being as in service to your customers as possible. And the real profit usually comes out of that. So rather than obsess over getting the first one right, just get into the game. Because as one of my mentors said, you don't really know what business you're in until you're in business. So just get in the game and start swinging. And then over time, you get better.
