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

A long long time ago... on a beach far far away... he saw the girl from a distance and went in for a closer look. As he got closer he saw she was sexy. Incredible sexy. She wore a semi-see-through crochet-bikini and had a figure most women would die for.

He confidently approached her, oblivious to the crashing of the waves in the background.

Sensing his presence she turned to face him.

His voice was hard, firm and without emotion. "Miss", he said, "THAT bathing costume is unsuitable for this beach. Please put on another one or leave the beach."

She just looked blankly at the beach inspector for a brief moment then said, "Okay". She walked over to her bag, pulled out her "more suitable bathing costume", took off the offensive one, showing the beach inspector her nakedness, put the "more suitable bathing costume" on and asked, "Is this all right?"

The beach inspector said, "Yes", and turned and walked away.

He didn't realize it, probably because he didn't know what to look for, but one of the keys of the mega-successful, moderately-successful and mediocre-successful had been shown to him. In fact, all the information he could wish for about succeeding was around him every day.

Alas, for him, it was never to be. He was too close-minded. Too inured within the system.

But to those with vision... those with eyes to see... the beach is a magical place. A place that reveals business' secrets to success.

If you've ever studied fire, or sat through a fire-safety course, you'll know of the Fire Triangle. A simple pictogram which represents what a fire needs to exist. Each point representing an element. Those three elements being Oxygen, Heat and Fuel. The absence of any one element prevents any fire from burning.

There's also a Success Triangle. Its three elements are Technology, Law and Society.

However, unlike the Fire Triangle, the Success Triangle is an either-or triangle. As long as one point exists, success is very possible. Provided it has a square foundation base made of Product, Promotion, Prospect and Media (Place for those who'd like to keep it to all Ps), that is.

The interesting thing is, the Success Triangle can dictate what the base is made of.

Oh, one other thing... for the Success Triangle to be really effective, the elements of it need to change.

Back to the beach...

If the beach inspector had had his eyes open, he would have noticed that he was now asking more and more women to replace their skimpy bikinis with more old-fashion ones. He was sitting in the front row seat as a Change in Society was taking place. He saw it every day, yet it never entered his mind that maybe he should sell bikinis to all the people who now wanted them. He saw the wave coming but didn't "see" it coming. He saw other people had already caught the wave and were surfing it, but he didn't "see" it. His eyes were looking but not seeing.

I LOVE the beach analogy... waves start way off in the distance and take a while to reach you. If we watch we see them build. If we continue to watch we see surfers get on them. If they stay on we know the wave is a long one and we can now get on if we want. The wave keeps coming and coming. Some crash sooner than others. But all get surfers on them of various skill levels.

Some surfers are far from the shore and catch every bit of swollen water they can, always hoping it'll turn into a big wave. Others wait closer to shore making sure it is a surfable wave before hopping on. And yet others stay on the shore line barely getting their feet wet - at least they aren't getting dumped, they figure.

But the wave only comes when there's a change in the water/air/land. No change, no wave, just flat like a mill-pond.

A CHANGE in water, air or land and a wave forms for surfers to get on. Similarly a CHANGE in Technology, Law or Society creates a wave peope can get on and get Rich.

See the wave coming from far off and you can prepare to catch it.

Michael Ross.