I love a good paradox. There’s nothing quite like having your brain dance with the wonder of our world. Here is one I’ve been thinking about lately: The Coastline Paradox.
How do we determine the length of the coastline, say, on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu?
Simple. Look at a map, measure the distance, adjust the measurements to scale, perform a simple calculation, and voila, you have your approximate coastline length!
A rough estimation in 10-mile units on a map gives me approximately 110 miles of beautiful coastline.
Zoom in, however, and suddenly there’s more detail, and therefore, more coastline to measure. So we’ll do the same thing, now in 2-mile units. Now it seems we’re measuring 130 miles of shoreline.
Using our last unit measurement, I can approximate that the town of La’ie, on the Northeast side of the island has 2 miles of coastline. Zoom in, however, and I reveal even more detail, and when measured in 500-foot units, the La’ie coastline is all of a sudden 2.75 miles in length.
This is odd, it appears that each time I look closer at the map, more detail is revealed, and thus, more coastline is available to measure.
In fact, Wikipedia tells me that the approximate coastline length of Oahu is 227 miles!
This is the Coastline Paradox, “ the counterintuitive observation that the coastline of a landmass does not have a well-defined length.” We cannot know the exact length of a coastline. Since a coastline has increasing levels of detail the closer you inspect it, the range of the measurement increases the more detail you take into consideration. This, theoretically, means that the closer you observe the coastline, the more length there is to measure, thus, the paradox!
My takeaway from this is the closer you observe anything, more detail will always be revealed to you; thus, something simple on the surface can get very complicated the more you immerse yourself.
This paradox can apply when launching a business, I believe.
What if I told you that there’s a simple 3-part formula to any successful business?
And what if I told you this 3 part formula works whether you’re a consultant, an agency, advisor or marketer, and regardless if you made $1K / mo, or $1M / year.
Well, it’s true.
From a bird’s eye view, or in keeping with our coastline metaphor, measuring in 100-mile units.
At this scale, the 3 part formula for any successful business breaks down into:
- Niche
- Market Problem (within the Niche)
- Solution to the Problem
That’s it! You can apply this to virtually any successful business. But what happens if we zoom in and observe the formula with, say, 10-mile units? Suddenly, greater detail is revealed:
- Niche
- Demographics
- Psychographics
- Market Problem
- Type of Problem
- Pain Level
- Urgency
- Willingness to solve
- Solution
- Cost to Solve Problem
- Form of Delivery
- Profitability
- Timeline
- Skills required
- Materials required
Now, let’s dive deeper into a single point, and view it with “1-mile unit”:
- Niche
- Demographics
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Education level
- Income level
- Marital status
- Occupation
- Religion
- Psychographics
- Activities
- Interests
- Opinions
- Attitudes
- Values
- Behaviours
- Desires
- Fears
- Demographics
One might say, “the devil is in the detail.”
It’s because of the “Coastline Paradox,” when applied to business that I believe many new consultants, freelancers and entrepreneurs fail. They are excited about their idea, the dream of freedom, and a better life for themselves and their family — maybe somebody, an online guru, for example, did a great job of inspiring and motivating them to “quit their job” and “live the location-independent dream.”
Great! I believe inspiration, motivation and good feelings are essential aspects of launching a business! But if all you get is the “100-mile view” to “follow your dream,” what happens when you’ve actually taken the leap into uncharted territory, and suddenly find yourself measuring with a “1-mile unit”? You’re unprepared, un-equipped and lack guidance and a roadmap!
Actually, established businesses can get caught up in the paradox, but from the opposite perspective. Instead of looking at everything from a 100-mile view, they find themselves getting caught up in the tiniest details of the “1-mile view” and lose sight of the big picture. The expression, “can’t see the forest for the trees,” comes to mind.
My friend, if you’re looking to launch your first business, start up a consultancy, book freelance clients and earn an honest living doing work you love — you must embrace the paradox, but you need to keep your head in the clouds while confidently navigating the seemingly endless detail you’re about to embark upon.
This is why I created LAUNCH, my new course for people are ready to take an honest approach to learn how to start a business from scratch, in any niche, even if you have no customers, no offer, and no idea where to start. Check your inbox for tomorrow’s lesson where I’ll provide you with some more information on LAUNCH.
