Our unhealthy fixation with emulating #1

Founder takeaway

Don’t copy the market leader’s playbook without separating repeatable advantages from timing and luck. Build decisions around your company’s specific customers, constraints, and evidence instead.

Why it matters

Treating a winner’s outcome as proof of sound strategy can lead founders to imitate choices that are poorly suited to their own market, stage, or resources.

Relevant guides

Put it to work

Choose one tactic you adopted from a leading company and ask: What evidence shows this will work for our customers and circumstances, independent of that company’s success?