Irrational success

Whenever you hear about "the next big thing," the creator and whomever plans to market it may have very different ideas about success and failure. Why does one person have to be right? Step back a moment.  Realize ideas of success are subjective, and based on more than one reference point.  What you think may differ. You may not care about the up-and-coming thing at all either.

For example, Microsoft spent millions to develop 'Internet Explorer' and then gave it away. If you thought Microsoft lost big money on this venture, you may assume it was a failure.  Yet, if you consider what the company learned in the process of development, the resulting increase of general Internet users, and prospective Microsoft clients, you would likely see the situation very differently. Maybe true success involves more than mere financial gain? What about intangibles?

Consider books like Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time  and classic tales like Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace have been much-discussed best-sellers, yet how many people do you know who have read them? Is success measured by the notoriety of an author or theme more than by what is read? Does the nature and endurance of related socio-cultural debate count for something?

If you think back, inventions by people flop in the marketplace yet, are picked up and adapted by others who reshape or remodel items and experience success. Consider Xerox invented the mouse, Apple popularized it, and Microsoft ran away with that show.  Karl Benz invented the practical automobile, but Henry Ford got organized to produce assembly line cars. The rest, as they say, is history.

And what about a company like Napster that was so successful overnight that it was banned and the backer company went under?  At the same time, look at how the global music industry and accessibility to recordings are changing as the result. If this kind of stunt seems to undermine the status quo, and forces a system to adapt to changing markets and customer needs, could business failure also be perceived as a sacrifice for the greater good?

The above examples reveal how notions of success and failure aren't as clear as you may think.  Inventions don't all undergo a standard assessment before universal acceptance or rejection.  What is best for whom and why doesn't always explain the market reaction.  People won't necessarily use an invention just because it exists, but they may choose to use it for what it stands for or, for the potential it represents concerning other matters. We benefit from intuiting a wider context. What you think is irrational may make perfect sense to others and vice versa.