The Innovation Stack

What does it take to build a business? According to Jim McKelvey, the answer is simple: copy what everyone else does.

This might sound disappointing, but it’s true! Many lucrative businesses take an already established idea and repackage it into an ever-so-slightly different form.

Take Shake Shack – one of the most successful burger chains in the US. All of its famous menu items were copied from other restaurants. Its burger and fries, for example, were inspired by Steak ’n Shake. And its frozen custard was taken straight from Ted Drewes – a locally popular company in St. Louis.

Building a truly great business, on the other hand, requires a much different approach – one that involves stepping out into the unknown.

The key message here is: Entrepreneurship is about treading uncharted territory.

The upper echelons of today’s businesspeople are filled with successes in copying things that have already been done. But a real entrepreneur finds new ways to solve new problems. Look at it this way: to truly make a difference in the world, draw a giant circle around everything that humankind knows. And then leave the circle. 

Think back to medieval Edinburgh, which had a giant stone wall – very much like this circle – protecting its citizens inside. So many people lived within this wall that six-story buildings were only separated by narrow streets called closes. Less than a meter wide, these closes doubled as sewers; no one had internal plumbing, and they had to get rid of their waste somehow. So if you – or if someone standing on the slope above you – slipped, you’d fall into excrement and cascade down into the stagnant Nor’ Loch lake.

Now, life within the wall wasn’t great. But, for most people, it was better than what the wilderness outside offered: frightening beasts and certain death. Still, there were some brave explorers who looked over the stone ramparts and were curious enough to ask, What can I do out there? Though citizens inside the wall probably thought they were crazy, those who left were happy to risk their lives to discover something new and unseen.

So, what does all this have to do with entrepreneurship?

Well, today the word entrepreneur is basically used to describe anyone with a business. But, like their medieval predecessors who transcended the city walls, real entrepreneurs are fearless explorers.