Changing the game
Google announced an open interchange that allows users to take their social graph with them from one site to another. MySpace just joined in. This changes the rules for FaceBook, because now users have a choice of picking from dozens, soon to be hundreds of open sites… or just one closed one.
How can you change your game?
Consider the plight of Mike Huckabee and John Edwards. Both are making strong runs for the nominations of their parties, but both suffer because they’re not seen as front runners. So why not change the game? Instead of waiting for a TV network to invite them to a debate, why not make your own TV show? Debate each other, in public, in Iowa. Broadcast the whole thing on YouTube. When you’re done, challenge others in the opposite party to debate you, one on one. On your channel. What are they, chicken?
Consider the sandwich/burger shop/deli on a street crowded with choices. What to do? Why not get rid of all the meat and become a vegetarian/kosher sandwich/burger shop/deli? Now, it’s five competitors and you. Anyone with a friend who eats carefully will bring her to your shop, the one and only one of its kind.
Usually, when you destroy the barriers in an existing industry, everyone loses… except you.