Dammit, I don’t get it: What is that makes people think that once a business idea has been developed as a business that then it’s over, nobody else can do it, and anybody who tries to is a lesser human?
You know what I’m talking about. 
Two or three people brainstorming about business and business ideas . . . one comes up with something he likes . . . and another one shoots it down with “nah, that’s already been done.” As if you can’t do it because somebody else already did.
I say, so what? Is there still a need? Has it been done right? Is that one existing company serving the entire market perfectly, so that nobody else can jump in? Apple wasn’t the first personal computer company, Federal Express wasn’t the first courier/delivery company, and Google wasn’t the first search engine. Microsoft wasn’t the first personal computer operating system. So?
For that matter, with completely new ideas that have never been done, don’t you have to worry, why not? What is the rest of the world thinking that hasn’t occurred to you yet?
Do you think there’s something unethical about doing something that’s a lot like something somebody else is already doing? Why? Pretending to be them, copying the package, trying to deceive people, masquerading as somebody else, that’s not great ethics . . . but just doing something very similar?
What do you think?
(Image credit: Loopall/Shutterstock)
Tim Berry is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and Bplans.com. Follow him on Twitter @Timberry.
