Surfing the Waves, and Finding the Trends....

I like to go down to the beach sometimes, when the weather is nice. Surf some waves....

Well, I'm not really a board-surfer. But I do like to body surf....

Even though my Dad is from Michigan, he loved the ocean, so I grew up living in various cities around the world. Apart from Ithaca, NY (my birth place), they were all by the ocean.... So I've enjoyed body-surfing since I was a little kid.

These thoughts of surfing remind me of something I once read about Bill Gates.

Bill Gates isn't usually there at the start of a wave. There's usually up to a few other riders surfing the wave already, before Bill Gates gets there. But Bill paddles furiously to catch up. He usually does, then stands up and surfs to the front of the wave.

A good example is Internet Explorer and Netscape. Netscape made the first commercial software program to surf the internet.

But Bill Gates saw what was happening, and saw that this was a big wave coming. So he paddled furiously, and then managed to get on the same wave. Eventually, he surfed past Netscape.

(Whether he did it legally or not is not for me to decide here....)

As the years go by, there are always changing trends. Sometimes these are to do with changing technology, sometimes to do with changes in society. However, these changing trends are a gold mine of opportunity.

If you can see the trend early, you may be able to catch it.

Some trends remain hidden, and you can surf them all by yourself for a while before others realize and try to catch up.

Other trends are more obvious, and you don't have the trend to yourself for long....

I'll be writing more about this in the future - especially about what a well-known and respected business authority says about SOURCES OF INNOVATION in business, and how to find those trends....

Happy surfing!

Dien Rice