temporary advantage
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“Every advantage is temporary.”
―
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“… the only true advantage is knowledge.”
–
<someone I cannot find at the moment>
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So.
This thought of temporary advantage, and knowledge, is easy for business but it is also relevant to Life.
Let me begin with business <because, frankly, it is easier>.
Businesses are always seeking an advantage.
And they should.
I imagine the point I am going to make <in the end> is that most businesses don’t consider ‘advantage’ as temporary. When it actually happens … they treat it as sustainable and want to ride it all the way into the sunset <or as far as the horse will carry them toward it>.
And ultimately that becomes their downfall.
Couple of thoughts.
First thought.
Most often all energy is invested in developing a distinct product, or service, or some tangible advantage.
In fact gobs of money is spent against this objective.
Definition of gobs? Lots of money & time & intellectual energy. And this typically leads to some type of patent <if you are smart> or, at minimum, something different enough you feel it is … well … different <you may actually convince yourself after eating a pound of M&Ms in focus groups and multiple cocktails staring at your navel that it is “unique”>.
Now.
Let me tell you a business truth.
Product advantages are actually fairly easy to attain. In fact … they are a dime a dozen.
Yup.
Sorry about that.
Here is the other business truth.
The majority of product advantages are indiscernible to anyone but the one who developed it. I call it ‘dancing on the head of a pin’ differentiation.
Frankly? It is all wasted energy <mostly>.
Personally I prefer to aim for a competitive parity product that has enough meaningful benefits that it can compete over time <in other words … it is a sustainable product> … and use knowledge to be an advantage.
Sound crazy? Maybe.
Sound painful to say to management? Yes. Trust me … I have the scars to prove how painful.
But if you can keep your head out of your egotistical ass you actually have a chance to see this idea through to a very profitable, sustainable profitable, conclusion.
This translates into the ability to keep the product competitive but limit the amount of investment you have to invest to update/improve/trash & reinvent.
And use knowledge to sustain advantage because knowledge is a changing environment … never stagnant.
Next.
Second thought.
Sustainable advantage.
Sustainable advantage is really rare.
Extremely rare <unless you define ‘sustainable’ as ‘we did it for a week’>.
And, frankly, many businesses are actually too slow to take advantage of their … well … advantage. The window of advantage does not stay open long.
Businesses work to gain it <the ever elusive ‘advantage’>. They get it. They build plans to take advantage of the advantage. They go and do … and … well … their advantage is not only as advantageous as it used to look … but in many cases it is no longer even the advantage that you thought it was. The window is closed.
Oh. Maybe worse?
To your dismay you look around the room and another frickin’ window is open.
Damn. Wrong window at the wrong time.
That’s my quick acerbic soundbite for businesses on temporary advantage.
Personally I believe many businesses mismanage ‘advantage.’ Mismanage through incorrect attitude and in incorrect behavior.
Not only do they typically think incorrectly they also implement too slowly … and ultimately they do not know when to ‘abandon ship.’.
Regardless … now that every business person wants to send me a scathing personal email I will move on to the next topic.
Life.
Yup. I will discuss Life and temporary advantages.
We all know Life is challenging. And that is so mainly because it is always changing.
Just when you think you have at least one thing figured out Life moves the thing <hence the term “life sucks” was created>.
To even have a chance to be competitive with Life you have to continuously gain knowledge and adapt. There is no formula for gaining knowledge … sometimes you read something, meet someone or see something that changes your knowledge.
That is self stimulated gathering of knowledge … and it takes some fortitude and self desire to do so.
Therefore thank god for kids (youth in general).
They are a natural incentive to stimulate knowledge growth to maintain advantage. I worry about people like me, who does not have children, as well as those who ignore the knowledge, and stimulus to learn, young people offer. I guess my point is that we should use kids as a knowledge stimulant <rather than ignore them or subjugate them to our past tense type knowledge>.
I thank god I am a reader. It permits me to at least maintain a competitive place in a restless world. Notice I didn’t say competitive advantage.
Just be competitive.
I say that because I fully understand I will never find a competitive advantage against life. Well. Maybe I get a glimmer of an advantage on occasion. But it is fleeting. I keep a constant eye on the fact you gain knowledge to try and keep up.
And every once in a while you get really lucky and dash ahead for a second or two.
Two things about that ‘glimmer of the advantage.’
First.
Some silly people delude themselves into believing they have a competitive advantage in life. And, yes, they are delusional. People like this don’t seem to understand that Life is like a river constantly flowing. They quit paddling to rejoice in their ‘advantage’ and … oops … all the crap in life not only feverishly paddles by to get ahead <and lay some traps> but some of Life’s crap may actually slow down and do their best to smack you around a little <because a moving target is harder to hit so when you stop paddling you are easier prey>.
These people confuse ‘glimmer’ with ‘this is my new home.’ That is why they are delusional … because normal people could never get confused by those two things.
Second.
I worry about the people who never even gain one glimpse of the advantage. Because a glimpse gives hope you can win … at least on occasion in life.
No glimmer? No hope? That worries me.
How can anyone, even the strongest of the strongest, keep going on without hope for something better?
I am fairly sure I couldn’t.
I struggle to see how anyone could.
Anyway.
I now envision someone cranking up an email with a thought on “hey, hold on a second, you seem to be suggesting becoming a chameleon … and don’t you always talk about being true to yourself at all times?!?”
<please notice I used a rare exclamation point just for emphasis>
Despite the fact I will give that someone cranking up an email major points because that means someone actually has read some of my drivel in the past … I will quickly go to this quote:
“Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation.”
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Mahatma Gandhi
And then I would answer this way … in business and in life … the core is the core.
That core is the “me inside” and that is the sustainable competitive product. And by product I mean a product being a manufactured product or simply you <or me>.
Anyway.
That competitive core probably doesn’t have any advantage … it is simply able to go on day after day, year after year and … well … continue to ‘be’ … to exist. It <you & I> compete in Life <or with Life> because of a good steady core.
Adaptability through knowledge leverages your core … and means possible temporary advantage.
That’s it.
That’s my point.
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