Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1.     My ability to relate to anyone that I meet very quickly.

o   This is valuable because it can help in situations with pitching ideas to a probable investor or meeting with prospective customers. If you can relate to those people they will connect with you. This may not be very rare but I feel like it is a pretty unique characteristic many people can communicate well but to be able to understand what people like very quickly and be able to talk about those things is somewhat rare. I think this is hard to imitate because it is a skill that has taken many years to obtain by talking to many people and getting good at reading their personalities. I do not think this is something that is substitutable.

2.     Being extremely driven and turning failures into successful lessons.

o   This is valuable because many people are discouraged by failures instead of learning from them and letting it motivate them to be even better than they were before. I think this is also somewhat rare because many people are easily defeated by adversity and do not know how to learn from their failures. If you can do this you will never see failure as bad you will see it as an opportunity. This is not very hard to imitate all it takes is mental fortitude and understanding failure can be a positive thing. I do not think that this is very easily substituted.

3.     The people I connected with through the “Growing your Social Capital” assignment.

o   The three people I contacted in this assignment are valuable because they possess innate knowledge of the industry and of my product. This is not rare because there are many people knowledgeable on filters and the industry. This is also somewhat easy to imitate as someone can contact these same people. I do not think this has a substitute other than being as knowledgeable yourself as these contacts.

4.     I have someone that is willing to invest 5,000 dollars in my business.

o   This is valuable because having money to move forward with your venture is a necessity. This is not very rare because many inventors have people willing to invest in their product. It is also easily imitated for the same reasons. This is not very substitutable because money is needed in some fashion to start a business.

5.     My knowledge and past experience with ozone gas being used to kill bacteria and scent.

o   This is valuable because it gives me a head start into this industry because I know how ozone works and the ozone part of my filter is one of the important innovations about my product. This is somewhat rare I’m guessing because most people I have talked to do not know much or anything about ozone gas. This is somewhat easy to imitate because you just need to do some research on ozone gas and can obtain a decent understanding. This is something that is not very easily substituted.

6.     My working well with others and pushing them to be successful.

o   This doesn’t seem like a huge deal but in my mind, it is valuable. I will obviously have very few employees to start my business, but will eventually bring more in. I think as the owner of the business being able to support and push the people around you to be successful in the things they are doing for your company is a huge asset. This is probably not very rare and is very easy to imitate and  you could probably just substitute higher pay to motivate employees.

7.     I hate to lose more than I like to win.

o   This is very valuable if you ask me. Hating to lose is a trait that leads people to success because if failure is something you cannot stand so much you will do everything in your power to not fail. This is somewhat rare I think because many of the people I have been around say that I’m too focused on being the best and winning no matter what. This is something that can be imitated when you change your mindset from being complacent to wanting to be the best in everything. This is something that is not substitutable.

8.     I have people available to work for me without much pay if I needed employees early on.

o   This is somewhat rare I believe because not many people have available resources for free especially when it comes to employees. This is also rare because of the same reason stated above. This is something that can possibly be imitated it but would not be very easy to imitate. This is substitutable but it would be substituted by payed employees.

9.     I also intend to have a culture in my company that incentivizes working hard and winning in all aspects of the company.

o   This is valuable because I will have an incentive program for all people in my company especially the sales force. The people selling your product are the heart of your business and they deserve bonuses when performing well. This is somewhat rare because some companies do have regular sales bonuses but mine will include prizes such as cars and other things that are tiered. This is easily imitated if a company is doing well, but not easily substituted.

10.  My ability to get along with everybody I meet.

o   This isn’t just valuable for investments, meetings, and sales. This is valuable because I will get along with anyone that works inside of my company which leads to higher company morale. This is rare because many people like to only be around people like them or with certain traits. This is not easily imitated, but can be substituted by forcing yourself to ignore people you do not like.

I believe my top resource is being able to turn failures into successful lessons. I believe this because you will fail more than you succeed. For many people this can stop them from moving forward and using these failures in a positive way. If you let failure bog you down your venture is a failure from the start.