June 6, 2022

Lose the battle today in order to win the war years from now

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Tucker, the postwar automaker most remembered for his futuristic sedan, never officially produced his car for the mass market.

His team manufactured fifty prototypes, but when his factory was closed due to scandal accusations, and when the dealerships sued him for production delays, he went bankrupt and shut down the organization.

Funny thing is, his automobile still had an impact on the industry. Tucker’s innovative vehicle introduced many features that have since become widely used in modern cars, particularly around safety standards.

Coppola’s inspiring biopic about the automaker concludes with a memorable insight from the inventor himself:

What’s the difference between fifty cars and fifty million cars? It’s only machinery. It’s the idea that counts. It’s the dream.

Tucker’s story shows us that the established order loves nothing more than to thwart and destroy a visionary. But while the powers that be often win the battle, the innovators win the war.

Sure, maybe your product ultimately fails in the market by not gaining mainstream adoption. Or maybe your product never even makes it to the market in the first place.

That doesn’t mean you and even the broader world don’t benefit from the positive downstream effects of the innovation process. If the work you do changes the industry for better and for always, then it doesn’t matter how many units you sold.

People remember stories, not statistics.

Napster was a pioneering peer to peer file sharing software that revolutionized the way music was distributed and consumed. I remember being in college when the product went viral. It was the coolest thing any of us had ever seen.

We all laughed to ourselves, wow, this is exactly why the internet was created.

Naturally, the two founders pissed off a lot of people. Of course their ran into legal difficulties. Of course the drummer from the biggest heavy metal band of all time threatened to kill them. Of course the service ultimately got shut down as the company went bankrupt.

But those are all just the footnotes. What people remember are the undeniable downstream effects. Napster created something that shifted the entire industry, impacted broader culture, marked the death of the album era, paved the way for the sharing economy and later the streaming economy, and ushered in the digital revolution which changed the lives of billions.

Who’s the joke on?

Pete Yorn sang it best:

Time is waiting for the lightning to arrive, you can tell that’s the way I’ll survive, you can take my life but I’ll never die, heading for the bandstand in the sky.

Are you willing to lose the battle today in order to win the war years from now? Will you commit and show up every day to do the work despite immediate positive results?

If so, then you might have what it takes to be a visionary.

What do you want to change for better and for always?