Guy Kawasaki (world’s most famous tech evangelist) posts this morning about some fascinating studies involving perception. Seems that softball players and golfers who imagine softballs and golf holes to be larger than they really are have better days than those who don’t. Sounds like they visualized their success.
Kawasaki goes on to suggest that perhaps if entrepreneurs imagine their market sector is larger than what it is, they’ll do better. But while softball is a team sport, batting is pretty solitary–you’re alone up there facing the entire opposing team. You just need to hit that ball and hit it well and they respond. Markets are the other way around.
I’ve often said that startups don’t create demand, they discover it. But, perhaps they can help it along. At least a little. The secret I’m suggesting is to convince as much of you audience as you can reach to think that you market is very large. That starts from investors, but customers are equally important. Who doesn’t want to be a part of something new that will grow to something very large and successful?
Isn’t that the entrepreneurial equivalent of visualizing a hole so large you can’t help but hole in one?