This Issue: Go Against the Tide

The world is rich with examples of originality. Original means independent and creative in thought and action. Nowadays we call it out-of-the-box thinking. Whatever you call it, it often means taking the road less traveled, which may not be the easiest way to go. But sometimes the easiest way is also the mediocre way, and that’s okay if that’s your standard. But it isn’t mine, and most likely it isn’t yours, either, if you’re taking the time to visit Trump University online.

When I was starting out in real estate, my father thought I was nuts to want to build in Manhattan. I was taking the road less traveled, and I knew I was up against some pretty big odds, but I wanted to carve out my own niche. I had my own ideas about real estate and knew I’d have to be independent as well as creative to see them happen. I’m certainly happy I decided to take the chance and go for it. It would have been easier for me to just stay with the family business and leave it at that.

Fortunately, I had a good education and plenty of real estate experience behind me. I always warn people not to jump into anything unprepared. It’s that old fine line between bravery and stupidity. Read the map before you walk the path. There’s always a certain amount of danger, danger meaning the unknown, even on the yellow brick road. Wolves live out there. Sometimes you don’t see them until it’s too late. Keep that in mind no matter how sensational or foolproof you think your idea might be when you take walk down the path of the road less traveled.

I had an old friend who worked on Wall Street, but he wasn’t doing very well there. He started looking unhealthy, but he refused to move on. I liked this guy, so I finally told him that he was beginning to look like a total loser to me and to everyone else. These were harsh words, but I did care about him. When I asked him why he continued to struggle on Wall Street, he said that his family had always been on Wall Street and that everyone expected him to be there. He wanted to continue the family tradition, but I could see it was killing him.

I asked him what he liked doing, and he told me he liked keeping the greens at his golf club. He was very good at this, and he knew a great deal about golf courses. I told him he should look into the golf industry instead of making a fool of himself on Wall Street. Breaking away from family expectations was difficult for him, but he finally did. Ever since he took the road less traveled, he became extremely successful in the golf business. He even looks like a different person, but he had to go against tradition to achieve this transformation.

It’s a good idea to take your own pulse once in awhile instead of just focusing on what the masses are doing. Take a break from expectations and from the media. Plug into yourself. You might find that your electricity flows better through another socket. You might have to exert yourself but look at the alternatives that remain. Get out of your so-called comfort zone. I call it complacency, and it's a good way to go nowhere.

I remember firing someone who once said “I think it’s good enough” when referring to an unfinished project. Good enough? It wasn’t good enough for me, and if it was good enough for him, he shouldn’t be working for me. I want people who will go the extra mile to make it the best. Don’t be so easily pleased with yourself or with anything else. Be tough and keep your standards high even if you have to fight the undertow.

We use the term “groundbreaking” in construction when we're about to begin construction on a new building. That term is also used to describe something that is new and creative, as in setting a new standard. Make your life as groundbreaking as possible while venturing down the road less traveled.

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If you are going to make your dream a reality, you are going to have to break some rules-- maybe all of them. Consider the life of John H. Johnson, the legendary founder of Ebony. When Johnson passed away this month at the age of 87, we lost one of our most remarkable men--a completely unique businessman, who built his success by bucking authority and by taking the road less traveled.

Do you really have to break rules to get to the top? If you spend a little time with Johnson’s autobiography, Succeeding Against the Odds, you will see for yourself.

In 1942, Johnson was an employee at Supreme Life, an insurance company with many African-American policyholders. He sent out a letter that asked 20,000 of them for $2 to subscribe to a magazine that didn’t even exist yet. Three thousand people sent in their money. With that revenue stream in place, he printed his first magazine Negro Digest, an adaptation of Readers Digest for black readers. He took this approach--soliciting funds directly--after a Chicago bank officer told him, “We don’t make loans to colored people.” Johnson wasn’t taking that crap. He had a business to start, so he rolled right over the opposition.

But 3,000 subscribers were not enough, so Johnson had 20 of his friends travel around Chicago asking newsstands to stock his magazine. Those vendors called their distributors and asked for it. Those distributors called Johnson and placed orders. He used the same strategy in other cities. In less than a year, he was selling 50,000 copies a month. Johnson wasn’t waiting for the marketplace to respond to his idea. His road less traveled was creating the marketplace.

When he launched Ebony in 1945, Johnson chose Life and Look as his models. He published profiles of black movie stars, athletes, and other highly successful people. Publishing executives said the formula would never work for Ebony. They said there weren’t enough successful black Americans to keep the publication going for more than six months. Sixty years later, Johnson’s trip down the road less traveled still has 1.6 million subscribers and Life and Look are mostly memories.

For Ebony to grow, Johnson needed ads from mainstream advertisers. So he called advertising mogul Fairfax Cone, head of the immense Foote, Cone & Belding ad agency, to ask Cone to place his clients’ ads in Ebony. Cone refused to see Johnson or take his calls. So when Johnson found out that Cone was about to take a train from Chicago to New York, he got on board and buttonholed Cone in the club car. Johnson sold his magazine so forcefully that Cone became a key ally of Ebony.

Soon General Motors, General Electric, and other major corporations were advertising in Ebony, just as they did in Life and Look. Score another win for Johnson.

What a life Johnson led. He launched other publications, including Jet. He created a successful line of cosmetics. In 1982, he became the first African-American on the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. The story of his success goes on and on.

Of course, Johnson made certain people angry. Some black militants picketed Ebony headquarters, attacking the magazine’s middle-class values. Some employees said Johnson was a demanding boss or too materialistic. (When John Lennon and Yoko Ono visited his office while on tour, they quipped that it was “nicer than Buckingham Palace.”) And then there was the media buzz when Johnson said he didn’t want Ebony to have any white subscribers.

He spoke his mind. He was unique. He never regretted leaning on people, outwitting bigots, or taking the road less traveled as he built the first black-owned mega media empire in America.

Remember John H. Johnson. Get your hands on his autobiography and read it. His life will remind you that as you pursue your dream, you are going to have to break some rules and take the road less traveled.

In marketing circles, there’s a problem called the “majority fallacy.” What it means is that corporations and business owners often “go with the flow,” seeking the gold that’s in them ‘thar hills, along with everyone else. The problem is the “along with everyone else” part.

To be successful today, we need to set ourselves apart, to take the road less traveled and find our own corner of the world where we can set up shop in an uncluttered marketplace. If we take the road less traveled, even though it’s harder and more challenging, it’s also easier to get noticed, just like words written on the margins of a page are noticed and better remembered than words in the main body of the page itself.

Taking the road less traveled may mean bucking “conventional wisdom” that “experts” put forth about “how things are done.” For instance, Sam Walton eschewed the conventional wisdom that the world did not need another discount retailer--at the time the country already had FedMart, Gemco, and Kmart. (Where are these "competitors" today?) Additionally, Mr. Walton opted to open in non-metropolitan areas, where the conventional wisdom suggested the lack of population density and proximity would be deal killers.

Good ideas and good entrepreneurial opportunities may often be perceived as "different,” which means that more effort is required to make them succeed. They demand that you expend your own passion and internal motivation in order to advance them in the marketplace. Failure may also be a factor to face, but not to fear. As entrepreneurs, we take risks and while the payoffs are big, so are the odds against us.

For Michael Dell, sitting in his dorm room at the University of Texas, the “path” for selling computers was through traditional retail stores just like toasters and blenders. But consumers don’t need their toasters and blenders customized or individualized to do the job for which they’re designed, while personal computer buyers do. So Dell Computers was formed to take the road less traveled and actually build and deliver a customized product specifically designed to meet the needs of its customers.

Venturing down the road less traveled requires persistence, belief in your idea, and the energy to execute it in a world that may initially seem indifferent to your success. It’s the nature of being an entrepreneur that we are bucking a trend or “creatively destroying” an accepted way of doing things, much like Napster affected the recording industry. By taking the road less traveled, though, Napster paved the way for iTunes and other online marketers and music distributors.

For some entrepreneurs, walking the path of the road less traveled is simply improving upon a business model that’s broken and needs repair. It has been more than 20 consistently profitable years since Herb Kelleher saw an opportunity in an airline industry that was over-regulated and under-serving its customers. More recently, David Nelleman further defined the airline industry as a “service” provider, differentiating Jet Blue by customizing what it offers the customer and using customer service as a key driver of competitive advantage. For both Kelleher and Nelleman, the road less traveled was as simple as giving the customer what they want: dependable, affordable air travel, provided by caring, customer-friendly people.

For all of us who call ourselves entrepreneurs, taking the road less traveled may sometimes be a lonely pursuit. It's also one that provides great personal satisfaction when the road less traveled eventually turns, and we see more directly the results of our labor and can finally take time to enjoy the view.