To Improve or Invent, Which Will Make You Money? / To Make Money Online

This is a response to the blog entry “Improver” or “Inventor” in Your Business? by Alex Mandossian. He gives example of “improvers” that that have prospered with projects “invented” by people who died destitute despite their genius.

Alex,

Your point is a good one. Most of the time it is more profitable, and definitely more efficient, to “improve” than invent.

You see the quotes around improve? That’s to call attention to your examples which equate improvement with being made more accessible and commercially viable.

Did Bill Gates improve the computer? That is did he make it function better? make it easier to use? make it more aesthetically appealing?

In my years of Mac vs PC arguing (which I have abandoned as it is as useful as sweeping out a tent) I found even staunch PC users would concede he did none of those. So what is it he “improved”?

What was his improvement?

He made them cheap and put a name behind them that people would accept. He made them commercially viable to the main stream.

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs improved the computer too. They took what started as a circuit board on a hobby bench and made it function better, easier to use, and more aesthetically pleasing and came up with the Apple.

This made them wealthy, but not to the extent it did Bill Gates. It was too exclusive, e.g. to expensive and difficult to understand, than the PC. And when the Steve’s improved again and created Macintosh Bill’s commercial viability enabled an inferior product to dominate.

The point is even in the realm of improvement there is inventive improvement and commercial improvement. Alex’s examples, and the point I took from his post, focus on commercial improvement and we should too; if commercial success is our goal.

Is there such a thing as inventive commercial improvement? Sure, but it’s very rare. The best example I can propose is Apple CEO Steve Jobs v2.0. His second round at Apple has proved his understanding of both innovation and commercial viability.

I used to consider myself an inventor, and condemned those not willing to perish nameless and penniless in the name of their creative endeavors. Now I have a different view.

I seek inventive commercial improvement, in the long run. I realize commercial improvement is where to start. Not just because there are more profits in it, but because it is the right thing to do.

If something is commercially improved it means people like it and get to have it en masse. That’s a good thing. More important, without commercial improvement an inventive improvement may never see the light of day. That’s bad.

So go forth and improve, commercially, and prosper. If you’re inventive do that too, but maybe later, and always with an eye to commercial improvement too.