jayeff

Ignore the first decade of this business: particularly during the first five years it was easier to stay dry in a monsoon than fail to make money. But now that supply and demand are more balanced and anyone starting today is facing a lot of experienced competition, there are going to be many more failures than successes. The point is that you are going to see people failing who seem to have done everything right and at the same time, you cannot draw too many conclusions from why others appear to have failed.

Over the 25 years before I began working in online porn, I started three 7-figure businesses from scratch. The most I ever invested initially was $10,000 and I had zero experience of the (three very different) markets. What I did have each time was a very clear idea of a gap I believed I could fill and enough arrogance to expect my mistakes to be little ones.

"Thinking outside the box" is something we talk about a lot, but in fact we rarely do it. Instead, we start learning about how other people do things, without realizing that condemns us to make their mistakes and more than that, puts us into head-on competition with other people who will often have a much clearer vision of what they are doing than we can derive from watching them. Even if we don't fail, going that route in a mature industry such as online porn is fast becoming, all but guarantees modest results.

That may be all many people want and although most will still fail, it is the safest way to go. But both logic and my own experience tell me loud and clear that if you want more success than that, you must go your own way. You have to make being different a credo, even if the difference can often be small and of course, it must be one which actually appeals to your potential customers

Sure, when people see you doing well, they will try and copy you. But then they will be the ones playing catchup and trying to figure out what really makes your business tick. You can be certain not more than a handful will ever get it right.

Most people commit themselves to failure or only limited success, the day they pick a business and then start trying to figure out how to make money from it. If you cannot see a gap on the day you start, it's the wrong business.