The submarine I used to be an officer on was named the USS Chicago. It was very similar to the USS San Francisco. It may not have been a big deal to you, but on January 5, 2005, the USS San Francisco ran into an underwater mountain while operating submerged at the fastest speed it could go (classified). One person died and dozens were injured, some so severely they would never recover. The ship was about 15 seconds away from being lost at sea which would have made it the first US nuclear submarine lost at sea since the USS Scorpion mysteriously exploded in 1968. The mountain was completely submerged, not marked on the charts, and the ship had absolutely no prior warning to be able to avoid the crash. I obviously have some inside information as to why this happened, and some of it is classified, but the reason behind the San Francisco crash actually taught me a lesson about internet business that I will always remember, and anyone serious about starting an internet business should take the same advice.
The San Francisco was travelling through the Western Pacific in order to transit from one point to another, sort of like you would travel an interstate to get from one city to another. They were travelling at extremely fast speeds. The area they were travelling through was very mountainous, as is most of the Pacific Ocean, but they were never operating outside of the operating capabilities of the submarine. So how could the have avoided a mountain that is literally invisible?
They certainly weren’t the first submarine to go through the area, and they definitely will not be the last. Why didn’t the other submarines hit the invisible mountain? Because the other submarines followed a path that had already proven safe by submarines before it..jpg)
You see, the San Francisco had chosen to cut a corner when travelling. They were a little bit behind schedule, and they decided to deviate from the proven path that previous submarines had followed when transiting through the area. The area was perfectly safe, and all submarines are allowed to create their own path if they would like to, provided it is safe. If the San Francisco had used the same path that was tried and proven, they would never have run into that mountain, and that crew would be perfectly fine.
How could you use this in your business? Simple: use paths that are tried and proven. Get started in niches that you know for sure are profitable because people are already making money in them. Don’t try some kind of crazy traffic "secrets" that you think may work. Use the same tried and true methods that everyone else uses.
Don’t stray far from the path. You’ll eventually hit that underwater mountain.
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Sunday, 1 Jun 2008 Filed under: Leadership, Starting Up by Bryan
