Derek Morton's Marketing Musings

Why Do Businesses Fail?

It always seems that when a business fails, the reasons for failure usually center around 3 main points:

1) Undercapitalized

2) Hired the wrong people

3) Bad Market Conditions

So naturally one would think that if you didn't have any of the above problems, you are destined not to fail right? Enter Samuel Pierpont-Langley, one of the greatest minds of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Why haven't many of you heard of him? Because despite all the advantages that he had, the Wright Brothers were able to get a manned aircraft to take flight before he did.

What were his advantages? He was highly educated, with advanced degrees, and many chairmanships at different Universities. This led to him being appointed as the third secretary of the Smithsonian in 1887. While there he developed some models of potential airplanes (aerodromes he called them). These models led to a $50,000 grant from the Department of War and a $20,000 grant from the Smithsonian. So we cannot argue that he was undercapitalized.

What about point 2? With his connections in the field of science, he was able to hire the best minds money could buy. In today's terms, think of the type of minds that NASA is able to recruit.

And onto the last point, were the market conditions bad? Nope they were great, not only was the government giving out money to help fund the experiments, but many others were trying to be the first to create a flying apparatus. Plus he was followed around by the New York Times. Interest helps create beneficial market conditions. Green energy would probably be something comparable in today's world.

The amazing thing about the Wright Brothers is that they found success without any of the perceived advantages that Samuel had. They paid for their plane out of the proceeds from their bike shop, their team was made up of friends that believed in what they were doing (none of the team members had a college education, including the Wright Brothers), and they found success by taking advantage of the market that had been created for them.

What do we learn from this? It doesn't matter what perceived advantages another person or company might have, we are able to create our own success if we figure out how to use our talents to our advantage.

Derek Morton has been in the Title Industry for 9 years. Currently he works for Mountain View Title and Escrow in charge of Market Development for Cedar City, Utah. He is currently the Chairman of the Board for the Cedar City Area Chamber of Commerce. He also owns the blog www.cedarcityrealestate411.com , and can be found on Twitter @cdrrelestate411