How to profit from your ignorance...

One product developer and entrepreneur wallows in his ignorance. It's where he gets his ideas!

Richard Saul Wurman is the creator of the color-coded Access guide books, creator of the USAtlas, and author of around 69 books (according to my search on Amazon.com). He gets ideas by being aware of his own ignorance, and using that as a way to create products the way they "should" be, so they are more useful than ever before.

Personally, I really like his approach to entrepreneurship and product development. This article is a few years old, but it's still great! Read it below.... I guarantee it will give you some ideas!

- Dien Rice


Get Dumb and Grow Rich....

> One product developer and entrepreneur
> wallows in his ignorance. It's where he
> gets his ideas!

> Richard Saul Wurman is the creator of the
> color-coded Access guide books, creator of
> the USAtlas, and author of around 69 books
> (according to my search on Amazon.com). He
> gets ideas by being aware of his own
> ignorance, and using that as a way to create
> products the way they "should" be,
> so they are more useful than ever before.

> Personally, I really like his approach to
> entrepreneurship and product development.
> This article is a few years old, but it's
> still great! Read it below.... I guarantee
> it will give you some ideas!

> - Dien Rice

how Mr. Wurman became successful?

He split markets, just like Richard Koch suggested to do. Just like Ted Nicholas did. Mr. Wurman took old, worn-out and seemingly 'time-tested' business cells like maps and directories and split them.

He didn't just take the current information and re-word it, which is where the majority of information marketers fail. He took the information and presented it in a totally different manor. A person could instantly look at another directory and one of his directories and instantly 'see' the difference. How often can you say that with all the "Get Rich Quick With (Emailing, Ebooks, Search Engine Positioning, Real Estate, Stock Tips, Classified Ads, MLM's, Ecommerce...or substitute your own 'niche')" books, courses or what not on the market today? Doesn't happen too often does it? One just looks and reads like another. And then originators just sit back and wonder why they don't sell...

Take care,

Mike Winicki

Great article, Dien! Thanks for sending it our way.

If you think about it, Richard's approach is actually a variation of the tried & true method of "Find the market (read: problem), and then create the product."

Only difference is, he has the guts to define a "problem" as his own personal experience, rather than doing all kinds of systematic research.

This, of course, is the high risk/high reward approach. It can spectacularly fail, or spectacularly succeed. But like with anything else, perseverance is the name of the game. And he certainly seems to have weathered his share of storms and emerged very nicely!

All the best,

Jesse

> One product developer and entrepreneur
> wallows in his ignorance. It's where he
> gets his ideas!

> Richard Saul Wurman is the creator of the
> color-coded Access guide books, creator of
> the USAtlas, and author of around 69 books
> (according to my search on Amazon.com). He
> gets ideas by being aware of his own
> ignorance, and using that as a way to create
> products the way they "should" be,
> so they are more useful than ever before.

> Personally, I really like his approach to
> entrepreneurship and product development.
> This article is a few years old, but it's
> still great! Read it below.... I guarantee
> it will give you some ideas!

> - Dien Rice

Hi Jesse!

> Great article, Dien! Thanks for sending it
> our way.

I'm glad you liked the article! :)

> If you think about it, Richard's approach is
> actually a variation of the tried & true
> method of "Find the market (read:
> problem), and then create the product."

> Only difference is, he has the guts to
> define a "problem" as his own
> personal experience, rather than doing all
> kinds of systematic research.

> This, of course, is the high risk/high
> reward approach. It can spectacularly fail,
> or spectacularly succeed. But like with
> anything else, perseverance is the name of
> the game. And he certainly seems to have
> weathered his share of storms and emerged
> very nicely!

Yes, I agree with you....

I think the nice thing about his approach is that, in essence, all the "market research" happens in his head.... He just tries to make things the way HE would like them to be.

(This is different from the way many people who don't do market research do it.... They try to come up with what they THINK that OTHERS want. However, he comes up with what he KNOWS that HE wants, so I think there's a difference.... If nothing else, he at least knows he has a market of one person!)

The nice thing about this approach, I think, is that it's probably easy to come up with new types of products, created just how you like them.... I agree with Richard Wurman's sentiment, that there are LOTS of things in the world that could use improving, and be better designed or made easier to use.

Of course, the danger is that maybe not enough people think the way you do! As you essentially said, Jesse, you may have to take more swings at the ball with this method before you get a hit!

I agree with your assessment. :)

By the way, here's a quote I really liked from the article....

"When you sell your expertise - whether to a boss, a client, or even a friend - you have a limited repertoire. On the other hand, when you sell your ignorance, when you sell your desire to learn about something, to create and explore and navigate paths to knowledge - when you sell your curiosity - you sell from a bucket that's infinitely deep, that represents an unlimited repertoire.

"My expertise has always been my ignorance - my admission and my acceptance of not knowing. My work comes from questions, not from answers."

- Richard Wurman



I love the idea of selling from something that is infinitely deep - your curiosity.... You can never run out of new questions to ask....

Perhaps it's the scientist in me. :)

Thanks Jesse.... very insightful comments!

- Dien

Hi Mike,

> He split markets, just like Richard Koch
> suggested to do. Just like Ted Nicholas did.
> Mr. Wurman took old, worn-out and seemingly
> 'time-tested' business cells like maps and
> directories and split them.

> He didn't just take the current information
> and re-word it, which is where the majority
> of information marketers fail. He took the
> information and presented it in a totally
> different manor. A person could instantly
> look at another directory and one of his
> directories and instantly 'see' the
> difference.

I agree with you fully here.... I think there's a lot of benefit in being "distinctive"!

I think there are several ways of looking at something, and often different ways of looking at something will come up with the same result!

Recently, I've been thinking (and reading) a lot about the notion of "competitive advantage".... (Mike, if I remember right, you are interested in military strategy - which I'm interested in too. I think considering "competitive advantage" is a very strategic way of thinking about business....)

From this point of view, you have to think about BOTH what customers want, and what competitors are already offering. The way I see it, you can only have a "competitive advantage" if you can offer something your customers will value, which your competitors are not offering. If your product is just like what your competitors have, then often the only way you can compete with them is by cutting your prices! Of course, if you keep cutting your prices, eventually you won't have any profit left!

The only other way is to be DIFFERENT, in a way which some of the market will value. It's exactly as you say, you have to "split the market" that way. :)

I guess Richard Wunderman bets on the possibility that enough people in the market will be just like him. If he realizes he would find a travel guide more useful if it was organized a different way, he's betting that there are enough people out there who will think just like he does, and who will therefore want his products!

He really creates his products for himself, and bets there are enough people out there who agree with his sentiment that they'll want his stuff. But as you say, one key is that what he creates is quite different from what exists already....

> How often can you say that with
> all the "Get Rich Quick With (Emailing,
> Ebooks, Search Engine Positioning, Real
> Estate, Stock Tips, Classified Ads, MLM's,
> Ecommerce...or substitute your own
> 'niche')" books, courses or what not on
> the market today? Doesn't happen too often
> does it? One just looks and reads like
> another. And then originators just sit back
> and wonder why they don't sell...

I agree with you fully, Mike. Thanks for those insights. :)

- Dien