Fixing A Failure of Strategy: Launch It Quickly. Some Ideas Work Much Better Than Others, But Nobody

Fixing a Failure of Strategy
A Failure of Strategy is a WHAT problem. By 1999, Amazon had a clear

vision to “be earth’s most customer centric company.” They were also
masters of getting things done, which is why they were able to roll Amazon
Auctions out in just three months. The why and how were handled, but
the what was unknown.
There are three primary ways to fix Failures of Strategy.
1. Launch it quickly.
2. Do it cheaply.
3. Revise it rapidly.
Launch it quickly. Some ideas work much better than others, but nobody
really knows which ideas work until you try them. Nobody knows ahead of
time—not venture capitalists, not the intelligent folks at Amazon, not your
friends or family members. All of the planning and research and design is just
pretext. I love Paul Graham’s take on this: “You haven't really started
working on [your idea] till you've launched.”
Because of this, it is critical to launch strategies quickly. The faster you test a
strategy in the real world, the faster you get feedback on whether or not it
works. Note the timeline Amazon operated on: Amazon Auctions was
released in March 1999. Amazon zShops was released in September 1999.
Amazon Marketplace was released in November 2000. Three huge attempts
within 20 months.
Do it cheaply. Assuming you have achieved some minimum level of quality,
it is best to test new strategies cheaply. Failing cheaply increases your surface
area for success because it means that you can test more ideas. Additionally,
doing things cheaply serves another crucial purpose. It reduces your
attachment to a particular idea. If you invest a lot of time and money into a
particular strategy, it will be hard to give it up on that strategy. The more
energy you put into something, the more ownership you feel toward it. Bad
business ideas, toxic relationships, and destructive habits of all kinds can be
hard to let go once they become part of your identity. Testing new strategies
cheaply avoids these pitfalls and increases the likelihood that you will follow
the strategy that works best rather than the one you have invested in the most.
Revise it rapidly. Strategies are meant to be revised and adjusted. You’d be

hard pressed to find a successful entrepreneur, artist, or creator who is doing
exactly the same thing today as when they started. Starbucks sold coffee
supplies and espresso machines for over a decade before opening their own
stores. 37 Signals started as a web design firm before pivoting into a software
company that is worth over $100M today. Nintendo made playing cards and
vacuum cleaners before it stole the hearts of video game lovers everywhere.
Too many entrepreneurs think if their first business idea is a failure, they
aren’t cut out for it. Too many artists assume that if their early work doesn’t
get praised, they don’t have the skill required. Too many people believe if
their first two or three relationships are bad, they will never find love.
Imagine if the forces of nature worked that way. What if Mother Nature only
gave herself one shot at creating life? We’d all just be single-celled
organisms. Thankfully, that’s not how evolution works. For millions of years,
life has been adapting, evolving, revising, and iterating until it has reached
the diverse and varied species that inhabit our planet today. It is not the
natural course of things to figure it all out on the first try.
So if your original idea is a failure and you feel like you’re constantly
revising and adjusting, cut yourself a break. Changing your strategy is
normal. It is literally the way the world works. You have to stay on the bus.
Stage 3: A Failure of Vision
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Massachusetts in 1803. His father was a
minister in the Unitarian Church, which was a relatively popular branch of
Christianity at the time.
Like his father, Emerson attended Harvard and became an ordained pastor.
Unlike his father, he found himself disagreeing with many of the church's
teachings after a few years on the inside. Emerson debated heavily with
church leaders before eventually writing, “This mode of commemorating
Christ is not suitable to me. That is reason enough why I should abandon it.”
Emerson resigned from the church in 1832 and spent the following year
traveling throughout Europe. The travels sparked his imagination and led to
friendships with contemporary philosophers and writers such as John Stuart
Mill, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas Carlyle. It
was later written that his travels to Paris sparked “a moment of almost
visionary intensity that pointed him away from theology and toward
science.”
Upon returning to the United States, Emerson founded the Transcendental

Club, which was a group of New England intellectuals like himself who
wanted to talk about philosophy, culture, science, and improving American
society.
Emerson's deep questioning of his life and values, which began with his work
as a pastor, intensified during his international travels, and continued with his
Transcendental Club meetings helped him realize the desire to become a
philosopher and writer. He spent the rest of his years pursuing independent
ideas and writing essays and books that are still valued today.

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Fixing a Failure of Strategy

A Failure of Strategy is a WHAT problem. By 1999, Amazon had a clear

There are three primary ways to fix Failures of Strategy.

Revise it rapidly. Strategies are meant to be revised and adjusted. You’d be

Stage 3: A Failure of Vision

Upon returning to the United States, Emerson founded the Transcendental

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