Have you seen the movie – 300? It is the story of 300 Spartans who defy all logic and fight against wave after wave of attacks by a much bigger Persian army. Technically it is a well made movie and is a good entertainer – but as an entrepreneur you can draw lot of inspiration from this movie.

The Spartans were severely outnumbered – but they believed in their abilities, their training, the trust they had with one another – sounds familiar? 🙂

As an entreprenur you will have to fight lot of battles – thought not as gory as Spartans.

Fight against a well established player :

Like the Spartans, when Apple started they had to fight IBM. When Pepsi started it had to fight Coke. You can find so many stories where a small company challenged the giant in the industry. If you are one of those entrepreneurs fighting a bigger player – keep going. If you believe in your abilties, in your team – even if it is small – you can win the battle eventually.

Fight against established norms :

Spartans did not believe that they had to match the enemy one to one in number. If they had stuck to the established military principle – they would have lost the battle even before it began. But they defied the established norm and held the Persian army at bay.

When twitter started, there was criticism. Why will anyone want to limit their thoughts to 140 characters when there are blogs? – and look what is happening today.

In NewZealand, Tendulkar was sent to open the innings, and instead of protecting the wicket and seeing through the initial overs,  he took advantage of the open boundaries and accelerated the score. Purists criticised him for rash play – but he changed Cricket forever.

Bend the rules to your advantage :

Spartans bent the rule by making Persians enter a smaller area to fight – so inspite of the Persian army having a larger force  they were forced to send only a few at a time to fight with the Spartans – which the Spartans decimated.

This is what all management books say – find out what is your core competency, your strength  – and try to  focus on that –  try and dictate how the battle has to be fought.

Take a couple of hours off – and you and your team watch this movie together – it will be quite an inspiration.

Some interesting quotes from the movie :

“Immortals… we put their name to the test. “

“We did what we were trained to do, what we were bred to do, what we were born to do! “

“Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty… For tonight, we dine in hell! “

“The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle was over, even a God-king can bleed.”

“The Tipping Point” is another interesting book from Malcolm Gladwell. “Tipping points” are the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable. He analyses how social epidemics start and classifies 3 kinds of people you will need – who will help your product/portal/message reach the tipping point.

Connectors : Connectors are passive information passers. “Hi I heard about this cool website…” – is what they will say – and they will say this to quite a few.

Mavens : Mavens are more factual. “Do you know you can get this and this done in this website…” – is what they will say. They analyze threadbare the features/shortcomings and will help the listener make a fair judgement of the product.

Salesmen : Salesmen are more persuasive.  “You should be using this website because it will save you time and effort….” is what they will say.  They not only do the job of mavens – by giving you facts but they also will list out the advantages in such a manner that will make the listener run and get it.

You have to spot the connectors, mavens and salesmen among your customers. The tried and tested advertising is word of mouth – it is very hard to get this kind of advertising, but this is the only way you can “tip” your business.

So – rethink your strategy. How do you get people to talk about your product – is it through doing more SEO, is it through meaningful articles on a blog, is it by talking more to your customers?  Wish I knew the right answer 🙂 – but it does raise interesting questions – and in the answers lie the strategy to help your venture reach its tipping point.

Some interesting quotes from the book :

“The three rules of the Tipping Point — The Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, the Power of Context — offer a way of making sense of epidemics. They provide us with direction for how to go about reaching a Tipping Point.”

” Acquaintances, in short, represent a source of social power, and the more acquaintances you have the more powerful you are.”

“Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.”