Does your stuff have real pupose? Or does it just exist, because it exists?
I think the olympic walk has no purpose. It’s the equivelant to a contest to see who can whisper the loudest.
A history of something existing or occuring is no reason for it to continue to in the future. It’s got to make sense.
photo reuters
When it comes to start ups – it’s got to have a purpose which is beyond the founder making money. Maybe our opportunity is replacing something which has no purpose with something that does.
Great post and I couldn’t agree more about Olympic walking. Trying to think of something to place walking with…..anything.
The persistence of race-walking could also be viewed as an example of a niche product. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean there aren’t a significant number of folks who do. In certain countries race-walkers are hailed as national heroes (Jefferson Perez in Ecuador for example – their only ever Olympic medallist (one gold, one silver 12 years apart)).
I personally think swimming is pretty pointless, especially once you ask the competitors to chose a slower stroke than freestyle, but nevertheless these folks are lauded as national heroes and certainly here in Australia the media coverage is wall-to-wall.
Lots of people don’t like sport at all. Does that mean Nike, FIFA, Bernie Ecelstone, the Packers and everyone else who has managed to build a viable and profitable business model from it should walk away?
I would prefer to think that the message from your dismissal of walking is that “you can’t please all the people all the time, but you certainly better please the folks who do like what you’re offering”.
You are right that if your core market gets bored or starts to shrink then you might want to think about adaptation or innovation (e.g. slo-mo cameras, skimpier uniforms, 20-20 cricket) or you might become irrelevant.
You are also right that there is room for innovation in the sporting arena (e.g. the X-Games).
Thanks for the provocative post.
Hey, that guy on the left should be disqualified, one foot should always be touching the ground!!! 🙂
Love ur blog Steve, keep up the good work!