Generate Success

A business lesson – if you are successful in business you should look towards change and not stagnation.

As early as the mid-1990s I was taking part in meetings and presentations with a company called MAGEX who was attempting to sell their idea and ultimately their software, to the music industry.  The software allowed someone to legally buy an mp3 and download the file to a specific computer.  The track would not play on another device and therefore once bought, could not be copied or shared.

This concept had its limitations but the main essence was to get the record industry to stop wasting their time and money fighting illegal downloading of music, and concentrate on how best the music industry could embrace the Internet and the phenomemnon of peer-to-peer sharing sites such as Napster.

Remember, this was a time long before MySpace, YouTube and other social networking sites.

Universal, Sony and BMG were among representatives at those meetings who simply couldn’t see past how much money they were losing, and not what they could gain, and moreover, didn’t want to consider what would happen to them in the future.

I beleive what I witnessed in the space of one year or so, was successful businessmen not wanting to step outside of their comfort zone.

The result was that the music industry chose to ignore the changing patterns of music consumption; and only recently, ten years later, are they embracing the Internet through social media websites and free downloads; a lead that was given to them by small independent labels and artists who, if truth be known, need the money more than they do!

I felt engaged to write this post after reading that Mick Jagger, lead singer with The Rolling Stones, has been invited to help the European Commission (EC) to draw up a report on e-commerce and online shopping.

Jagger will be part of a committee (including Steve Jobs of Apple) who will advise the EC on the issues surrounding the online shopping sector, including a particular focus on online selling and downloading of music through eCommerce websites.

Neelie Kroes, a European Union competition commissioner told the BBC that one of the points to be raised will be why it is not as easy to buy music files online as it is to have a CD shipped around Europe will be under investigation.

To tie this in with the purpose of this blog – how to generate online business success – the business lesson I learnt by way of my first-hand experience with MAGEX and the music industry in the 1990s was that if you are successful in business there are at least two reasons why you should look for change and not stagnation:

1. Success should breed more success – look for other ways to expand your business and increase your success further instead of allowing your competitors to gain the upperhand.

2. Every millionaire I have ever spoken to always has a story to tell of when they made a ‘make or break’ decision.  They NEVER tell the story of how they played safe and took no risks or that once becoming a millionaire they are not looking to increase theor wealth.

And if your business is a success you may want to reward yourself with a cruise holiday?