Sean discusses examples of businesses that have disrupted the marketplace and culture. The people that come up with big ideas deserve to be billionaires. Encouragement for entrepreneurs to go for it when it comes to disruptive ideas.
What does that mean? The Cambridge dictionary says what a disruptor is: it’s a person or a thing that prevents something, especially a system, a process, or an event from continuing as usual, or as expected.
So what is a disruptor in business?
It’s somebody who just absolutely transforms an industry or how something was previously done. That’s a disruptor.
Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen says that a disruptor “…displaces an existing market, an industry , or technology. They produce something new and more efficient and worthwhile, and because of it, it’s their destruction.” Create something totally new.
Think about this:
Walmart
That was a disruptive company at the time. Nobody believed that you can put a large discount retail store in a population of less than 50,000. Well, Sam Walton believed that you could and guess what? He’s won out He disrupted retail like no one else is disrupted retail, as a retail store.
You think of all the stores that no longer exist, because Walmart has these huge stores in every city.
Think about vaping. Cigarettes over the last 20 years have become less and less cool. The idea of lighting something and putting in your mouth has totally turned off this generation. But now somebody has figured out how to repackage something that kind of fell out. Now, for this market, vaping is cool. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, but clearly, vaping has put a whole new spin on cigarettes. It’s completely disrupted the market.
And the guy Craig Weiss, who’s huge in the vaping industry, has talked about how with cigarettes, you lit something on fire and you put it in your mouth, and just kinda knew there had to be a better way of doing it. Because of that, he became a complete disruptor.
Uber
Absolutely just annihilated the taxi industry. I can’t even tell you the last time I took a taxi.
Airbnb
It flip-flopped the hotel industry. That’s a disruptor.
Peloton
It’s a home fitness revolution. All he did is basically stream what he was doing in New York in their studio to your bike. You could have just taken a stationary bike, left your monitor up in your room, and followed it. But he said no! What if we just put it on the end of this bike?
He’s caused a fitness revolution and now is a billionaire.
UFC
I think about this like cock fighting 20 years ago. Two birds killing themselves. They mainstreamed cock fighting. People like boxing and they took it to a whole new level. They absolutely found a market that nobody else saw. They put some rules in place, but they mainstream violence to where it’s acceptable, and now ESPN pays a fortune to broadcast it. This is a complete disruptor.
WWE
Think about this. It’s completely fake. It’s entertainment and the outcome of every match is staged. This is basically a testosterone filled opera, but none of what you’re seeing is real. It’s an acrobatic, athletic, circus.
Billion-dollar company, billion dollar industry. That’s a complete disruptor.
Being a Disrupter
I hope you end up being a disruptor. I kinda compare this to a big idea. The disruptors are the ones that make the billion dollars and they deserve it. Every person that is involved in creating one of the companies that I mentioned, you deserve to be a billionaire.
Today, I encourage you to be a disruptor if you do get that incredible idea. Go for it, because the one thing about these ideas is, the pay-off is huge.
