My First Million
The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.
If your strategy is something everyone agrees with, it's not actually a strategy - true strategy requires elements that reasonable people would disagree with
The Reasoning
Strategies that everyone agrees with become table stakes and provide no competitive advantage. Differentiation requires doing things competitors won't do, which means some people must think your approach is wrong
What Needs to Be True
- Market must reward differentiated approaches over consensus approaches
- Company must have conviction to maintain disagreeable elements under pressure
- Disagreeable elements must create genuine value, not just be contrarian
- Team must understand and buy into the disagreeable strategic choices
Counterargument
Disagreeable strategies are more likely to fail because they ignore industry best practices and proven approaches. Consensus strategies exist because they work
What Would Change This View
Data showing that companies with consensus strategies outperform those with disagreeable strategies, or evidence that disagreeable strategies lead to higher failure rates
Implications for Builders
Test your strategy by seeing if competitors would disagree with elements of it
Expect pushback from team members, advisors, and industry experts on disagreeable elements
Focus on elements where you have unique insight or conviction that others lack
Build internal culture that supports maintaining disagreeable positions under pressure
Example Application
“SaaS company decides to provide unlimited customer support calls (disagreeable: most companies limit support to reduce costs) because founder believes it creates stronger customer relationships and reduces churn, despite CFO and advisors arguing it's unsustainable”