It’s Called, Hitting the Business Jackpot
There are plenty of entrepreneurial “lotteries” around us. The next viral product, the Instagram post that breaks the algorithm, the real estate deal that turns $100K into $1M, or the business pitch that gets the golden nod from investors.
The usual advice? Play the game by the rules. Mimic what came before. Study the trending hashtags, the formulas for a killer sales funnel, and the exact timing for when to post your next TikTok video. Whole industries thrive on selling these step-by-step guides, promising that if you just follow what worked last time, you’ll hit the jackpot too.
It goes deeper than genre or strategy—it’s the relentless urge to blend in completely, to walk the well-worn path and hope for a miracle.
Here’s the thing, though: all real breakthroughs in business—the ideas and entrepreneurs who changed the game—come out of left field.
In fact, who ever saw an Instagram, a TikTok, a Facebook or an Uber before they were created?
Out of left field is where the innovation lies. So, consider yourself blessed to be an “out of left field” thinker in the first place.
It’s the brand-new bakery in town that sells only one type of cookie (and sells out daily). It’s the entrepreneur who builds a course teaching how to make six figures with ATM machines. It’s the property investor who builds a portfolio using strategies no one else is talking about.
These aren’t lottery tickets. They’re surprise jackpots. They don’t follow the rules—they make the rules.
The problem with the “business lottery” is that with so many people playing the same game, the odds are never in your favor. It’s like trying to get noticed at a conference by wearing the same black blazer and handing out the same boring business card as everyone else.
So, here’s an idea: Maybe the smartest strategy isn’t to play the lottery at all.
What If You Bet on Something Better?
Your odds of success skyrocket when you focus on doing useful and remarkable work for people who actually care.
This doesn’t mean ignoring best practices entirely. It means leveraging them to create something undeniably your own. Something that speaks directly to your audience, solves their pain points, and makes them feel like you built it just for them.
Think about the people you want to serve—your clients, tenants, or buyers. Are you creating something that will stand out to them, or something that blends into the noise?
Here’s a secret: Winning isn’t about luck. It’s about choosing to play a completely different game.
As we round out the last week in 2024, which game are you willing to play in 2025 to move the needle in your business and to make sure you and your brand are heard?
Doing what everyone else is doing will just create more noise and while noisemakers get a lot of attention, we all would agree that not all noise is good noise.
