Why Do You Need to Steal As An Entrepreneur?

By Guest Contributor Neil Francis
Author of The Entrepreneur’s Book, Neil Francis, shares why entrepreneurs need to copy from others and how that helps them become successful.

‘’What is Originality? Undetected plagiarism’’ – William Ralph Inge

The French thief

I have a strange relationship with France and the French. One of my best holidays was in Paris but my worst holiday ever was in Bordeaux. One of my favourite restaurants in Edinburgh is French, but one of the worst bouts of food poisoning I have had was when I ate in a bistro in Nice. I admire greatly the independent spirit of the French, yet I get incredibly annoyed with them when one of their strikes affects my holiday!

This relationship with the French extends to caddying. Out of all the caddying jobs I have done over the years, some of the most difficult have been for French people, but so have some of the most enjoyable. You just don’t know which Frenchman or Frenchwoman is going to turn up!

Fortunately, when I met Philippe from Normandy on the first tee, I sensed this was definitely going to be a good French experience. He was very welcoming and seemed to be enormously excited about playing golf at North Berwick: “I just love this course,” he said. “This is my fifth visit to play on it.” Then he hit a brilliant drive, splitting the fairway.

And my intuition was correct. Philippe was incredibly friendly and chatty, and also a very good golfer – no looking for balls in the rough for me! This all boded well as Philippe was playing golf on his own and there is nothing worse than caddying for a single player who doesn’t want to talk or doesn’t ask for your advice! As we walked along the second hole, I asked him what he did for a living, and to my surprise he told me that he owned and ran a golf course in Normandy.

I was intrigued and asked whether he had bought it from someone, but he went on to explain that he had managed the designing and building of the course himself ten years ago. He told me that because of his love for the North Berwick golf course, he had copied holes 15 and 16 in the design of his own course. “Absolutely brilliant holes,” he said.

I have to agree that those holes are great. The 15th hole, called Redan, is the most copied par three in the world, and the 16th green is one of the most challenging you will ever play – trust me, I have had so many rounds of golf destroyed on that hole when I’ve played it!

“Is that what you did with the other holes you designed on your course?” I asked.

“Yes,” Philippe replied. “I travelled and visited many golf courses both in Europe and America, stealing ideas from different holes that I could then incorporate into my course. And I think that philosophy worked out really well, as I have what I think is a wonderful golf course that I love. But I am biased. If you’re ever in Normandy, you should come and play – you can compare my 16th hole with your 16th hole.” He laughed and then hit a superb shot into the middle of the fifth green.

Copy, copy, copy!

Philippe’s habit of copying or stealing is a great habit to foster and use time and time again as an entrepreneur. Obviously, I am not actually suggesting you physically copy or steal a patented idea or something similar – that would not be good advice! When I say ‘steal,’ I mean what Austin Kleon says in his brilliant book Steal Like an Artist:

‘’Start copying what you love. Copy, copy, copy, copy. At the end of the copy, you will find yourself’’.

That quote Kleon ‘stole’ from the Japanese fashion designer, Yohji Yamamoto!

As an entrepreneur, you must get into the habit of doing this all the time. The more you copy or ‘steal’ what you see as examples of success, the more likely you are to become successful. It’s obvious really – copy the things you admire, copy the things you really like, copy the habits of entrepreneurs you look up to, copy ideas you love from TED Talks, copy insights from books that inspire you, and copy bits of wisdom from films and TV programmes that fuel your imagination. Basically, copy anything that resonates with you and that will help you to become a better and more effective entrepreneur. And, when you copy, remember that the chances are that you will improve the thing you are copying! As Kleon says:

‘’All creative works build on what came before. Nothing is completely original. ‘’

It is crucial though to distinguish, as Kleon highlights, what is ‘good and bad theft’. ’Bad theft’ is to plagiarize, imitate, rip-off, and steal from only one source. ‘Good theft’ is to credit, honour, transform and steal from many.

You might think that becoming an author is not a very entrepreneurial thing to do. Well, if you think that, I have to tell you that you’re wrong! If you are to have any chance of being a successful author these days, you need to see your book as a business. Not only do you need to come up with the core idea of your book but you also need a structure for every chapter, and then you need to write the book – and that’s the easy bit! To have any chance of success, you need a full marketing strategy in place – for pre- launch, launch and post-launch – and then you need to implement it. Yep, authorship is a business, normally a solo one, and I believe you need a real entrepreneurial spirit to make a book successful.

I see myself as an ‘entrepreneurial author,’ and do you know one of the things that really helped me to write and get my two books published? I stole!

I have a great friend, whom I admire enormously, who is one of the people I ‘steal’ and copy ideas from. Don’t worry, I have told him. He constantly sends out emails and Facebook updates with inspiring thoughts, links to resources he thinks people will find useful and videos of inspiring people. When I wrote my books, I am happy to say that some of the ideas and insights came from him. I stole them! Without these ideas, my books would have been far more difficult to write. So, I copied ideas for both my books from other authors, used quotes from famous people I admire, used Google constantly, and had lunches or beers with other entrepreneurs, authors, businesspeople, peers and friends who gave me stories, insights or ideas. I caddied for people, who gave some of my chapters brilliant little stories and helped me to illustrate a point I wanted to make. I studied successful book launches; I followed authors who were very active on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter; and I went to book festivals to listen to authors’ talks and see how they communicated with their audience. In all of these ways, I tried to copy the things other people did that seemed to make them successful.

Sam and Jack

Still not convinced? Okay, let me give you another example. Back to the world of golf!

Most people agree that one of the world’s greatest golfers, if not the greatest golfer ever, is Jack Nicklaus. Among many things he possesses as a golfer is a fantastic golf swing. One thing Nicklaus does with his golf swing is that he turns his head slightly to the right just before he starts his swing. Nicklaus believes that this slight action makes all the difference to his swing. Based on Nicklaus’s success, many golfers have copied that technique. However, it turns out that Nicklaus didn’t originate the move – in fact, he borrowed it from another very famous golfer, Sam Snead. Snead won seven major golf competitions in the 1940s and the 1950s. As Nicklaus said in an article for Golf Digest magazine in 2011:

‘’Turning the head was something I saw Sam Snead do when I played an exhibition with him at age 16 between the second and third rounds of the Ohio State Open. I figured if it was good enough for Sam, it was good enough for me.’’

So there you go: long before Nicklaus was the greatest golfer ever, he copied a move from one of the best golfers of the day, Sam Snead. Copying worked pretty well for Nicklaus – he has won more major golf competitions (18) than any other golfer in the world. Trust me, the top sportspeople, the most successful sports teams, the most innovative businesses and the best entrepreneurs copy. They take the best ideas, techniques, theories and insights and they copy them in some way. Sometimes they just imitate them. Other times they copy and then improve the thing they have copied. Sometimes, they copy a small thing that does not fundamentally change what they were doing already but that could give them a little edge against their competitors. But sometimes, they see something so fundamentally different, something so much better, that it would be madness not to copy it.

So, as an entrepreneur, you really need to get into a habit of stealing. And do you know what is one of the best compliments any entrepreneur can get? That other entrepreneurs start to steal your ideas, insights and techniques!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Neil Francis is currently author of four books (published with LID): Positive Thinking, Inspired Thinking, The Creative Thinking Book and The Entrepreneur’s Book. He is also the co-founder of Pogo Studio, a digital web and app agency, and Pogo Digital Healthcare. Over the years, he has worked with hundreds of companies, from SMEs to global organizations, helping them to use digital technology effectively and creatively.

Why Do You Need to Steal As An Entrepreneur? with Neil Francis

Why Do You Need to Steal As An Entrepreneur?

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