attention industry

Supervillain Lessons #1: Fair Fights are for Idiots.

I realized on the weekend that you can learn a lot from supervillains.  And why not?  So many of them are semi-legitimate businessmen, brilliant egomaniacs, dictators who demand perfection, and other things that describe Steve Jobs.

So, I’m starting a new series of posts, Supervillain Lessons, with this point: Fair Fights are for Idiots.

By this I mean, no reasonably intelligent person would ever bet the farm on their ability to win a fair fight.  You don’t enter an established market hoping that your more-or-less-the-same product will win based on your hard work, or your branding, or your charm alone.

When you launch a new idea, or enter an established market, you better have a secret weapon that makes everyone else irrelevant to the point of mockery.  And you better hope that it works quickly.

Because fair fights favour the strongest, richest, most established person.  Any disruptive company wasn’t in favour of a fair fight.

All I’m saying is, if you’re going up against Superman, have kryptonite, or stay at home.

The best part about not fighting fair?  If you brag about your advantage, the weaknesses of your opponent are made public.  If you don’t, you can take them down, unsuspecting.

Supervillain rule #1: Fair Fights are for Idiots.