Successful business lessons can come from some of the oddest places.
I have a son who is really into Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, the old 1960’s version. He discovered them on Netflix and has watched them over and over.
As I’ve sat and watched these classic shows with him, I’ve began to notice some very interesting parallels between what makes Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends successful and what makes small businesses successful.
So, the purpose of this post is to provide three business lessons you can learn from that classic children’s cartoon.
Find Your Super-Power
The interesting thing about Spider-Man, Fire-Girl and Ice-Man is that they each have a singular, unique power. They are specialized in their heroism and they do that one thing better than anyone else. Who can do what a spider does better than Spider-Man? No-one.
When we are trying to develop a successful online business model, we need to clearly identify our singular, unique power. In business this is your Unique Selling Position, USP. It has been called many things, but the important factor is that you have specific characteristics that make you and your services or products unique.
You may be the best teacher in your area or have the best customer service. Your USP is the super-power of your business. It is what makes you different. This is YOUR thing. It is what you do better than anyone else.
If you plan on running a successful business, online or brick-and-mortar, you must have your own Super-Power.
Be a Crime Fighter
In every episode of Spider-Man, the super heros are challenged by some villan. They have to fight the bad guys to save the day. Now if Fire-Girl got side tracked with some other project or task, she would fail as a hero. The bad guys would win! Not the way to be a super-hero.
In order for your business to succeed, you have to keep focused on the main thing. Make sure you are spending where you get a return. This applies both to the finances and the activities of your business. If you get side tracked with opportunities and task that are not connected to the success of your business, you will lose. The bad guy will win and the villan will shut you down.
Make sure to keep focused on what it is your are doing. You are a business owner, a super-hero, don’t forget it and let the villans win.
It Takes a Team
It’s Spider-Man AND His Amazing-Friends. Whenever Spider-Man heads out to fight crime and rid the city of the bad guys, he does it with his friends. It’s a team. Each person in the group has specific strengths and weaknesses and together they always win. Individually, they sometimes get beat, but as a team, they ALWAYS win. Every episode ends the same way!
We are social creatures and business is a team sport. It is incredibly difficult to try and do this all by yourself. You need a team. You need people who have similar goals to help carry the load.
I’m not suggesting that you need employees, but you do need partners. This may come through joint ventures, online community forums or local community groups (like your local chamber of commerce). Whatever approach you take, you need people to bounce ideas off of, to brainstorm, to help keep you in check. We all need that.
If your business is to be successful, you need a team.
What other traits do you see in Spider-Man that is important in business? Share your thoughts in the comments.
That's a great analogy, Alan! I agree that it definitely takes a team. And it's not just the team inside your business, but the team you build from your social network.
Our tribe is the perfect example. Together, we're able to achieve more as a group than we could on our own. And as a solo entrepreneur, it's even more important for me to develop and leverage the relationships I have with others.
This reminds me of an old commercial I saw growing up where in one scene, a guy breaks a pencil with ease. In a later scene, he tried unsuccessfully to break a bundle of pencils. The lesson? There is strength in numbers.
Hi Alan,
Great tips! Great analogy!
I especially like the "Find your super-power" tip. As I think about the times in my career when I was most "successful" I realize that it is because I excelled at a specific skill, job, or project. Too often I find myself jumping from one thing to another and create good results, but not "heroic" results.
Super-Man is a leader, visionary, and decision-maker, which are also good traits that are important for a business to be successful.
Nothing better than a good ol' spiderman analogy.
Networking is the lifeblood of growth and success.
Alan,
I love this post, of course I love anything that has to do with superpowers. As I kid I would walk down the streets trying to figure out what my super power was. I knew I had one but at the time I guess I still thought it was one that would manifest through the magic that the cartoons portrayed.
As an adult I'm amazed to find that I have several super powers and non of them have to do with magic or being bitten by a spider. Interesting the best super power I have, because it has led to all the others, is hard work. It turns out that a normal human adult can develop quite a few super powers if they are willing to work hard to gain those powers.
Thanks for the post, Kevin
Alan – nicely done! What a great way to take material that can be dry and reframe it with humor and engaging imagery.
What traits does he have… Let's see. I'm going to go with "Set your priorities". If your girlfriend is dropping from a building, you don't wast time chasing the bad guy.
In my case I often need reminders to keep my work-life balance straight. When I spend too much time on work my husband will gently let me know that "it's time to stop".
My personal 2012 version of my own super powers is "only play the games I want to play". If it ain't my game – I ain't playin'.
I like the way their names identify their traits (and I so want to be Fire-Girl when I grow up, how cool would that power be especially in cold Melbourne?) – it makes it quite clear where their focus is and should be.
Your point about it being a team is very valid, especially for me as I start my own venture in the world of solo entrepreneurship. I am very lucky to have an extremely supportive network around me at the moment, both personally and professionally. I try and touch base with them at least once a fortnight not just for my sake but to give them support back – after all there's no I in team (though there is a me!)
I like what you wrote about developing your own super power. We tend to see our own skills as somehow "not that special." Those who don't possess our super power may find it very special. And useful. Even essential.
And it doesn't have to be something as unique as climbing the walls of a giant skyscraper. There is heroism in attending to the small details of your life and your business.
After all, when Spidey is climbing a building, he's just taking one sticky step at a time.
Nothing better than a good ol' spiderman analogy.
Alan,
Great tips from an unlikely place. I agree with all of them. I would add a 4th – be consistent. Week in and week out they fight crime with a smile on their faces. For our strategies to success we need to be consistent too. Not changing strategies constantly or leaving projects unfinished. Most strategies are marathons, not sprints and the super friends showed us how it's done!
Spiderman – yes – I remember the days when I watched such cartoons with my sons.. and yeah, you need a team. Btw if you made your lines a little narrower your text would be easier to read! (Add margins left and right)
Thanks for the feedback.