How do today’s wealthiest entrepreneurs drive business growth? After spending decades studying this and building million-dollar brands and billion-dollar unicorns, one approach stood out.
Elon Musk calls it the “first principle” thinking.
It’s enabled him to innovate the industries of automobiles and space travel and to become one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs on the planet.
James Clear wrote his best-selling book “Atomic Habits” on adopting new small habits culminating in significant sustainable changes.
And when you look at your life or career, wherever you have a superpower, I can guarantee you this:
You’re tapping into this skill, whether you know it or not.
Does First Principle Thinking Drive Business Growth?
Here are some impressive stats:
- Tesla: In 2020, Tesla reported annual revenue of $31.54 billion. In 2022, it reported $81.4 billion.
- SpaceX: Estimates in 2020 suggested that it had around $2 billion in annual revenue.
- Amazon: Amazon’s net revenue in 2010 was $34.2 billion. Ten years later, in 2020, it increased to $513.9 billion.
- Airbnb: In 2020, Airbnb reported $3.38 billion in revenue. In 2022, it rose to $8.3 billion.
- Uber: In 2022, Uber’s annual revenue was $31.8 billion, up from $11.14 billion in 2020.
- Netflix: In 2022, it’s estimated to have generated $31.6 billion.
- Stripe: In 2020, Stripe was rumored to have an annual revenue of over $2 billion.
- Dyson: Though not publicly traded, its latest reported revenue figures from 2019 were around $6 billion.
- Palantir (the software company that facilitates machine-assisted and human-driven data analysis): For the fiscal year 2020, Palantir reported revenue of $1.093 billion.
- 23andMe: As a private company, it’s been reported as of 2019, it was reported they have an annual revenue of around $200 million.
That’s over $678 billion in revenue.
To Understand Why, You Have to Understand Pizza
Established in 1995, Papa Murphy’s introduced the first retail “take and bake” pizza, allowing customers to create customizable pizzas, which they then bake at home for maximum freshness and convenience.
I remember when I first heard this, I thought, “What? I want HOT pizza right from the oven. In other words, the perfect slice. Mmm… But these guys? They’re doing less work and have stores with NO ovens? WTF? They’ll fail.”
I couldn’t be more wrong.
Because I was looking at their offering as “a pizza joint” when they were introducing a brand new category: the “fresh ingredient, customizable pizza” category.
They pioneered the concept, instantly differentiating their offering by turning the customer into an executive chef able to customize their pizza with fresh ingredients.
How was this NO OVEN Pizza Concept able to succeed? Simple.
Papa Murphy deconstructed pizza to its core ingredients and came up with a new conclusion.
And introduced a significant disruption to the traditional “fresh-out-of-the-oven pizza joint.”
Together, They’ve Generated $678.29 Billion in Revenue
This is precisely how I have generated over $10 billion for clients worldwide using an exact blueprint I codified called “The Disruption Formula.”
When companies skip over dismantling and jump straight into What should we market? What should we say? What’s our mission? How are we different? they don’t disrupt. They add to the market noise.
Skipping “The Disruption Formula” step, they fail.
The same way a house built without a blueprint has unnecessary hiccups or fails entirely.
Or an airplane designed without engineering specs fails.
Or surgery performed without preoperative planning fails.
Or a legal case presented without proper evidence fails.
When this phase is done thoroughly, you can reframe properly, effectively differentiate, and smoothly craft a message that cuts through the noise and all the chatter and confusing messaging in your space.
Wherever you’ve succeeded (whether it comes easily to you or is hard work), you tapped into this ability to deconstruct things back to their fundamentals and disrupt the range of current choices.
Today’s Businesses Are Someone Else’s Conclusions. Reinvention Is Your Way Out
“The Disruption Formula” gives you more clarity since you’re not building on the (often outdated, antiquated, or shortsighted) foundation of someone else’s conclusion.
The most innovative and successful entrepreneurs intuitively apply The Disruption Formula.
Now you can too.
“The Disruption Formula” — How Leading Companies Drive Business Growth
- ASSESS THE MARKET NOISE: Take inventory of the existing products and services that “solve” the problem you’re solving. Answer this question: “What’s your audience’s normal solution?”
- TAKE INVENTORY OF THE NOISE BEING PROMOTED: Realize each of those things is a conclusion. These are not “facts.” They are someone else’s recipe to solve that problem.
- ASSESS THE CLICHES THAT MAKE UP THIS NOISE: Break each of those products or services down into the core ingredients, whether they’re a service, a product, or a mindset in terms of approach. “What are the fundamentals that make up this solution?”
- ISOLATE YOUR DISRUPTOR SO NEW DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS OCCUR: Review and answer this question: “How can these be reconstructed to be more efficient, simpler, cost-effective, and/or in better quality?”
No Time? Watch This to Drive Business Growth
Need more proof? Below are ten brands that used this strategy and achieved extraordinary disruption, growing faster than any blue ocean strategy I’ve seen.
Tesla, Inc.: Elon Musk used the first principle method, “The Disruption Formula,” to revolutionize the electric car industry.
Rather than accepting the prevailing notion that electric cars could only be slow, impractical, and expensive, Musk deconstructed the problem to its fundamental physics.
By considering lithium-ion batteries’ energy density and practical car requirements, he developed a business model that made high-performance electric cars a reality.
SpaceX: Traditional solution: Costly, non-reusable rockets for space travel.
By scrutinizing these elements and manufacturing most components in-house, procuring raw materials directly, and making rockets reusable, SpaceX drastically cut costs for space travel.
Amazon: Traditional solution: Physical stores for shopping.
Bezos redefined this by realizing the potential of an online platform to bring the store to customers to every computer desktop, similar to what the SEARS catalog did with mailboxes, revolutionizing how people buy without ever leaving their homes.
Airbnb: The founders of Airbnb applied “The Disruption Formula” to the hospitality industry.
Instead of accepting that hotels were the only viable accommodation for travelers, they deconstructed the problem to its basics: people needed a place to stay, and others had spare rooms, homes, or apartments.
This created a platform that matched these two groups, disrupting traditional hospitality into something more personal, adventurous, and not “the same old hotel room” experience.
Uber: Traditional solution: Traditional taxi services.
Uber reassessed the taxi dispatching system and realized that people’s mobile devices could function as dispatch centers and personal cars could act as a fleet. This led to the disruption of the taxi and private car service industries and greater ease and convenience.
Netflix: Traditional solution: Cable TV, DVD rentals, and cinemas for entertainment.
Netflix deconstructed these norms, understanding that people wanted on-demand viewing and transitioned from mailing DVDs to streaming content, thereby disrupting how we all consume entertainment.
Stripe: Traditional solution: Complicated online payment infrastructure.
Stripe’s founders deconstructed the core ingredients and developed a simpler solution to accept payments online, making running an online business easier and faster.
Dyson: Traditional solution: Bag-based vacuum cleaners.
Dyson rethought this concept and developed a bagless vacuum cleaner using cyclonic separation and sleek design (after four thousand prototypes), disrupting the complacent vacuum cleaner industry.
Palantir: Traditional solution: Limited data visualization and analysis tools.
Palantir reassessed these tools from a fundamental perspective and created software that allows more intuitive and powerful explorations of data, disrupting the data analysis industry the same way Apple changed what we expect from a computer.
23andMe: Traditional solution: Limited access to genetic testing and analysis.
By breaking down the problem to its basics and leveraging existing technology, 23andMe developed a simple, at-home DNA test, thereby disrupting the complicated healthcare and genetics industry and making customer convenience the first priority.
Taking a Sledgehammer to the Conventional Playbook to Drive Business Growth
By taking a sledgehammer to the conventional playbook, you can dismantle any limiting assumptions that stand in your way, reframe for clarity, differentiate for success, and craft a message that instantly helps you stand apart from your competition.
This applies equally to one’s thinking as it does to businesses, services, or products. In other words, always go back to the fundamentals.
It’s time to take it up a notch — this isn’t just about succeeding with less. This is about succeeding with more (like a Shark).
Say goodbye to the conventions holding you and your brand back and take advantage of your chance to create something original, disruptive, yet timeless.
So grab your sledgehammer and make your mark to become the disruptive entrepreneur you’ve always wanted to be.
If you don’t know where to start, I’m here with you every step of the way.
Together we can bring your vision to life like Tesla, SpaceX, Amazon, Airbnb, Uber, Netflix, Stripe, Dyson, Palantir, and 23andMe did.
And I’m so confident I can help take your business to new heights that I’m offering a free 1-on-1 strategy session.
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