🥄 There Is No Template

Hey ,

Have you watched The Matrix? Do you remember the famous scene of “There is no spoon”? 🥄

The Matrix is one of those movies that, for some reason, entrepreneurs love. I think it’s because we feel that we started living our lives only when we started running our own businesses.

The thing is, once we do start our business, we try to do everything “correctly”.

When it comes to selling physical products, we tend to think we need to have the packaging in a certain way, instruction in a certain way, communicate with our suppliers and customers in a certain way, etc.

The truth is - There is no template. The template is only in your own head.

A lot of people who start a business do it because they want to be free. Being free is not just a financial goal or a time goal, it’s also a doing-whatever-you-want-goal.

The goal of having a business is not just to think about the exit, but also to enjoy the ride.

Everyone wants to be different and make a difference, but no one is willing to do things differently.

Why should you be different? To disrupt. To cause a radical change in your industry.

Disruption comes from doing what’s working, making it better, and adding a bit of differentiation in the process. Let’s look at 3 TV shows that disrupted the industry:

1. Survivor broke the old model by being the pioneer in reality show TV.

2. Seinfeld was the first Sitcom with no real plot twists and each episode was almost a stand-alone masterpiece.

3. Lost was the first of its kind with never-ending questions and twists until the very last scene of the show.

As for your business, who says you need to have a CEO? CFO? CMO? WTF???

Just take a look at Elon Musk, naming his role as 'Technoking of Tesla' While 'Master of Coin' Title Goes to CFO Zach Kirkhorn.

Do you want the secret to what will make your business different?

Here it is - YOU. Your past experiences, jobs, hobbies, family, your life. What you’ve been through and what you’re going through. Use all of it when improving the products you’re selling, branding your packaging, how you run your business, how you manage your team, and how you’re communicating with your audience.

Let’s look back at the three shows I’ve mentioned above that have changed TV forever.

The most interesting part for me is how those TV shows were created in the first place. That’s what I want to know. Being the Google-everything that I am, here’s how:

1. Survivor came to be because the creator, Mark Burnett, was in a similar competition called Raid Gauloises, saw a business opportunity, bought the rights to market it in the US, and produced Survivor.

2. Seinfeld was created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, two stand-up comedians who had no idea about creating a TV show. They made a show “about nothing”.

3. Lost was created by J. J. Abrams, how? He loved the title “Lost” from a different show that got canceled, and while he was in Hawaii with his family Cast Away was on TV.

You see, it’s all about the past experiences that you’ve had along the way, along with the new experiences you’re having.

I do my best to practice what I preach, which as you’ve probably noticed my emails don’t have a template. I’m just figuring it out as I go and doing my best writing what would be interesting for me to read. I’m using MailChimp and a few other best practices, but the rest is all me. I know for a fact that at least some of you are reading every word from every email I send out - Thanks, mom.

Do you know the old 80%-20% rule?

Stop thinking there’s a right or wrong way to do things. Do only 80% of the right thing, add your own 20%, and make it better.

Create your own template.

This is how you stand out.

This is how you disrupt.

Take the red pill and go be you,

Tomer