Want to Become a No 1? Start Here

By Akin Adeoya

The Secret of Becoming No 1

I did not say the secret of becoming a No 1 in what you do. Or the secret of becoming a No 1 in what you love to do. I didn’t say becoming a No 1 in what you were trained to do. Neither did I say becoming No 1 in what you think you were born to do.

In all those situations listed, you are in good company. In a large company, there are lots of people who are doing what you are doing, or what you love to do, or what you were trained to do or what you were born to do and I can assure you many of them are doing a good job of it. That is what keeps the world going. And yes, there are some chosen or lucky bulls at the top of the each pile. You can beat them. But the chances of success are very low and there too many rivers to cross.

Becoming a No 1 is hardly ever accidental. Oh there are a lucky minority who become No 1 because they were just born to a King or Emperor and fall effortlessly in the line of succession. Most of us aren’t that lucky are we?

If you were trained to do it and you were not the first or second or third set of people trained to do it then there would already be an existing No 1,2,3,4 etc.

No 1s are notoriously difficult to dislodge. Not impossible. But difficult, costly, time consuming. Why waste all that time and energy and you are still most likely to fail? What makes No 1 a number 1 is not just about the No 1 position or the power and privilege attached to the position.

It is also about the thousands or millions who accept her as No 1. It becomes a settled issue. Settled issues are difficult to contend against. Even when they are wrong. That the earth is flat was a settled issue. That the earth is in the middle of the solar system and that all the planets, including the sun, orbited around it was a settled issue.

For millenia, incest among royals was a settled issue. From Egypt to the cold heart of Europe, the belief that the bloodline must remain pure over the generations by the act of internal breeding among brothers, sisters and blood relatives, was enforced. No one doubted it, everyone concurred. Royals were born sick, malformed, inefficient humans. Yet they would be installed as natural rulers with the power of life and death over mortals. Nobody could point it out that incest seemed to produce mentally and physically challenged individuals. Maybe they didn’t know. Maybe they dare not say it. But there must have been a good reason why normal folk go far from family to procreate.

Such is the power of human belief. Trying to challenge a man’s conception of what constitutes No 1 is as good as challenging his pride. It actually creates a feeling of insecurity in most people. It is a deeply emotional matter. Pure logic is not enough.

Sometimes the No 1 does not even have to defend her position. Hordes of her followers will do the dirty job for her. You will think you are battling the No 1. You are fighting her believers instead. Winning takes a miracle. Like if the No 1 personally commits suicide. Organic death. Enter No 2. It’s a succession system guys.

A wise man named Michael Porter, author of Competitive Advantage and one of the most important business strategists of the modern era suggests a better way.

To become No 1, you must redefine the nature of the product (brand, person, service etc). You must reconfigure the rules. When you fight on your own turf, built by you, with your strengths and weaknesses taken into consideration, how can you lose? And, by the way, lose to who?
First movers can only lose to themselves. And by the way that is a big danger! It happened to me once! But that is a story for another day.

First mover advantage is so formidable. In fact, Jack Ries believes the only way to predictably become No 1 is when you become a first mover on a new path that you personally cut through the forest.

Canon: Don’t fight to become No 1 in another person’s soccer field. He knows all the nooks and crannies. He will exhaust you with experience, resources and most importantly, the faith of the consumer, in him! The hordes on the stands will cheer him to victory even if he is really a bad Nero.

Go into the bush and build a new field for those who never played in the existing field. Men who never worshipped in the old shrines. This way, you succeed in becoming No 1 on the strength of your very own original ideas, the credibility of your products and the sheer vacancy at the top of this particular ladder.

Nature abhors a vacuum, they say. Go ye and occupy. You are No 1.

*Akin Adeoya is an imaginative strategist and communicator. He can be reached at thelettermachine7@gmail.com