How to build an antifragile business

Always Be Launching: how to find your next big cash cow.

Hey - sorry it’s been a minute! And welcome if you’re new here :-)

I’ve been thinking about what makes a business last, and one thing that has stuck with me from reading Taleb’s “Antifragile” is that a healthy business gets better when it undergoes stress. Like how you build muscle by tearing it up in the gym. Or how the stress of time improves the taste of wine.

Another way to think of it is like a good football team suffering a shock defeat. This doesn’t kill the football team, only it corrects their complacency and forces them to reevaluate and improve their systems. This is why I’m always optimistic when England have a poor early performance in a group game at the World Cup.

But this is the thing. The good times don’t last. And you always need to be searching for what is going to create your next wave of “good times”.

In business, one area or product tends to account for 80% of revenue or profit. But that 80% won't last forever, and that's why creating and testing new offerings should be ingrained in your “business as usual”. You should constantly be searching for the next big thing that'll take up that 80% slot because your current cash cow has an expiration date.

Now, here's the kicker - finding that next big cash cow is pure luck. You won't know what's going to become the new 80% until you launch it into the market. So you must Always Be Launching. Keep making those small bets and eventually, you'll hit the jackpot.

But let me tell you something that's just as important: brand building. When you have a strong brand (to be very clear, a strong brand means you’ve established a great reputation and built a relationship with a large group of people on the quality of your existing products), anything new you put out will get an initial traction or tailwind that a weak or nonexistent brand simply won't get.

This makes your efficiency of finding the next thing far greater.

It seems the root of all brand greatness comes from creating products people want, and love. So always optimise for that - and remember, that requires speaking to your customers! So GO!.