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.