Picasso once said, “Good artists copy.
Great artists steal.”
This was one of Steve Jobs’ favorite quotes.
And Steve Jobs once said, “We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
So wait a minute.
Is it a good or a bad thing to steal great ideas, and being a great copycat?
Because I hear people say sometimes, “You know, that guy copied my idea.
That was MY idea!
I came up with this!”
Listen, worry when nobody’s copying what you’re doing, because no one is paying attention
to you.
It is a very, very, very big compliment when somebody copies you.
So let’s talk about this — copycat.
Wait a minute, this is kind of confusing.
Are we really doing a video on copycats?
Yes, we are.
Let’s talk a little bit of history.
I think you’re going to enjoy this part about history.
Let’s talk a little bit about history.
Here we go.
So, one of the greatest players that just recently retired, Kobe Bryant, who scored
61 points in his last game is known as a copycat.
Everybody of his critics would say what?
He copied everything from who?
Michael Jordan.
Now Michael Jordan gets a lot of credit.
He won six championships out of six times and you know, so many times he was a scoring
champion, etc. etc. etc.
Did he copy anybody?
Well, Michael Jordan copied Dr. J., Julius Erving from the 76ers.
Well, did he, and Dr. J. copy anybody else?
David Thompson.
And if you look a the highlights from David Thompson, you will say, “Wait a minute.
That’s Julius Irving.
That’s Kobe, that’s Mike.
. . hang on a second.
They’ve been copying each other this entire time.
Unbelievable!
What a bunch of copycats.
What a bunch of copycats.
By the way, the great ones are experts at this.
Not let me continue a little bit more.
Let me continue a little bit more.
Okay.
This next one’s going to completely flip you out.
Are you ready?
So I have a smartphone here I’m holding.
Who invented the smartphone?
Most of us will say, “Steve Jobs.”
Steve Jobs gets all the credit for smartphones.
Is he really?
Really?
Did he really invent the smartphone?
Did he really invent the smartphone?
I’m curious.
Who do you think invented the smartphone?
What is your answer?
I’ll give you a second here.
Who do you think invented the smartphone?
Did you just say Blackberry?
Did you say Nextel?
Did you maybe say some of these other phones that were coming out?
Who did you say did the smartphone?
Watch this here.
Fifteen years earlier, IBM came out with a smartphone.
It was called the Simon Personal Communicator is what it was called, by IBM.
Fifteen years earlier, they came out with a smartphone.
Now, did IBM come out with the smartphone?
Did they invent the smartphone?
Are they the first ones that came out with a smartphone?
No!
There was an inventor from Greece who came out with the technology and the invention
that he patented.
He was the first person to do it.
His name was Theodore Paraskevakos.
You’ve got to study this.
Out of Greece, he was working for Boeing.
He came out with the invention, he got it patented, but Boeing didn’t do much with it.
Till today, he holds the invention, it’s with him.
It’s his invention on what he did.
But did he come out with the smartphone idea?
No.
Back in 1909, Nikolas Tesla.
Tesla who, Elon Musk admires tremendously, who the car is named Tesla after Nikolas Tesla.
Nikolas Tesla is the first one in 1909 to write out the entire programming saying it
would be great if we could combine a telephone with a computer.
Nikolas Tesla is the first person to come out with the idea of a smartphone that was
then patented by Theodore in Greece, who worked for Boeing, but Theodore was just an inventor.
He wasn’t a big thinker.
Then IBM took that idea and they moved too slow — terrible marketers — too big, so
you know how big companies move very slow.
Then a visionary came in, a big thinker said, “I am Steve Jobs.
We have a cool company.
We are better designers.
We’re going to introduce the smartphone.
And we’re going to sell billions of these things, and we’re going to make people buy
a brand spanking new one every six to 12 months.
And this product alone is going to help us being a six, seven, eight hundred billion
dollar company, depending on when you watch this video.
Why?
Because Steve Jobs was one of the greatest copycats of all time.
And the credit doesn’t go for his ability to being a copycat.
All of us, you watching us, we’re all copycats.
There isn’t a single sole that’s not a copycat.
You may say, “I’m not a copycat.”
Really?
Why do you wear clothes?
Why do you wear clothes?
Did you wake up saying, “I’m going to wear clothes today?”
You’re a copycat!
You wear clothes because other people wear clothes.
Why don’t you walk around naked?
If you really are not a copycat, you’d walk around with no clothes on.
We’re copycats.
Why do we get our hair cut like this?
Why don’t we do our haircuts completely . . . why do we do certain things the way.
. . how come we don’t shave our eyebrows?
Because we are copycats.
There’s certain things that we’re copycats.
There’s nothing wrong with being a copycat.
Here’s the challenge.
Unfortunately, most copycats are small thinkers.
Steve Jobs was a big thinking copycat.
Big thinking copycat.
Shameless about stealing the idea.
Samsung stole their idea.
They got sued for a couple billion dollars, but they still stole the idea.
And Samsung is now Samsung.
You know, the Galaxy S7 or whatever people talk about, they also stole ideas, right?
This continues.
Now is there really a formula for copycats?
I think the best book on copycats is Blue Ocean Strategy.
Let me tell you about the Blue Ocean Strategy.
I’ve recommended this book to so many different people and sometimes people say, “It was a
very boring book.
I did not like it.”
Two million people have bought this book.
Two million copies sold.
And it’s probably one of the best stories on copycats.
Why?
Because it explains to you four different things to becoming an original.
This is another book [Originals by Adam Grant] that I just finished recently.
It’s a phenomenal book that has to do with this message because it explains which originals
were never originals, but we think they were originals.
It’s a phenomenal way Adam Grant tells the story.
But let’s go back to Blue Ocean Strategy, because this tells you the step-by-step, this
one [Originals by Adam Grant] tells you a lot of the stories.
It’s got step-by-step at the end as well.
So what do they talk about in Blue Ocean Strategy?
It’s a very simple formula he talks about in this book.
Very simple.
He says, you’ve got four brackets.
Okay, we can put an image up in this area.
You’ve got four brackets that you’re looking at when thinking about creating a unique product.
One, you’ve got to take your company, your product, whatever you’re doing, and figure
out ways what you can eliminate.
For instance, if competition likes to sell 28 different products, maybe you’re going
to eliminate and come down to three different products.
McDonald’s has 40 different products on their menu and In-N-Out says we’re going to do three.
And we’re going to eliminate such and such and we’re not going to sell salad and we’re
not going to do this.
We’re going to eliminate salads.
So that’s eliminate.
You eliminate with your product.
#2: It talks about reduce.
What can you reduce?
What can you lower?
What can you minimize?
Let’s reduce the size of the menu.
Let’s reduce the amount of options.
Let’s reduce how technical this thing is.
Let’s minimize and get rid of some things that we don’t need to have to make it more
complex.
#3: The third thing is you raise.
What can you elevate?
Can you elevate marketing?
Can you elevate creativity?
Can you elevate delivery?
Can you elevate customer service?
What can you make better?
Then, the last one is create.
What thing can you create that your competitors are not doing?
What can you create that your competitors are not doing?
That gives you the edge of making it unique.
Right?
That’s a very simple formula that anybody can use to helping you become a great copycat.
But remember on the creation part, there’s some things that you’ve got to know about
why we have a certain level of affinity with a Steve Jobs or a Jordan or Kobe or whoever
one of these guys that we’re talking about.
Because what makes you an original, what makes you a great – and eventually you end up becoming
the one that everybody looks at that makes a big difference is your personal stories,
your personal failures, your personal philosophies, that’s the signature that you’re adding to
the world.
Those are your domain.
That’s what makes you authentic.
That’s what makes you you.
But the formula on how to become a copycat is a very simple formula.
There’s a lot of guys that are doing it much better than you.
Who do you copy yourself?
Who do you watch yourself?
Who is somebody that’s doing much better than you?
Is there some people that you’re watching because some people are not worth copying.
You’ve got to realize that a lot of people copy the wrong type of people.
95% of the world is a copycat of the wrong cat that they’re copying.
That is a very big problem.
In business, you’ve got to ask yourself who you’re copying.
Are you copying somebody even worth copying?
Who’s a list of people that you secretly admire that nobody else knows that you follow.
Some people are public about it.
Who are some of the people that you secretly admire.
And you say, “I love his approach that he does this.
I love how he does that.
I love the fact that he does this.
What can I do to make it better?
How can I make that better?
How can I add a twist to it of my own?
What stories can I add with it?
Half the business books, if you look at business books, the foundation is all what?
Same thing.
Why do we buy?
Why do we connect with certain books and not other books?
Stories.
Stories.
Half the books you buy are very similar.
Half the books are love stories.
What are they about?
She had a man, he didn’t treat her well.
She met a new one.
He was amazing.
They fell in love.
They’ve been married for 62 years.
Oh my gosh!
She was dating a man.
He didn’t appreciate her.
He cared more about the cars.
He cared more about sports.
His best friend was paying attention to her.
One day, he’s not doing well.
They spent lunch together.
She realizes the person she loves is the friend.
Oh my gosh.
All of a sudden, he’s Italian, she’s Mexican, they realize they have certain connections
together.
Their parents love each other.
They’ve been married now for 42 years.
And then there was a breakup.
He loses it.
He dies.
Then she goes back to.
. . I mean, it’s like the same old same old, but oh my gosh, this is so amazing!
It’s the same exact thing with a couple of different twists to it.
You’ve just got to realize with the 80 years you’ve got in your life, 79 years you’ve got
in this world living, one, who do you copy, two, what areas do you copy, three, how big
do you think to make that become your original, where you make the biggest impact with that
one little thing or two little things that you copied in your life.
So, this was one of my favorite episodes that I wanted to do.
I really had a lot of fun just reading and going through the notes myself.
So if you’ve got any questions, comment on the bottom.
If you’ve got any thoughts, comment on the bottom.
I actually personally respond myself to this.
Typically, at midnight, but I do respond myself to the comments.
And by the way, if you haven’t subscribed to this channel, please do so.
Our goal is 100,000 by August 31st.
We need as many people to help us get to 100,000 subscribers by August 31st.
You will hear about something major that I’ll be launching here between now and then, with
a new product, and if you’re watching this video on a completely different website, you
can always go back to PatrickBetDavid.com.
Give me the ring tone, there you go, baby.
You can always go to PatrickBetDavid.com.
There’s a bunch of other content there for entrepreneurship.
And subscribe to the newsletter as well to stay connected with us.
Thanks for watching everybody.
Take care.
Bye bye.
Great artists steal.”
This was one of Steve Jobs’ favorite quotes.
And Steve Jobs once said, “We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.”
So wait a minute.
Is it a good or a bad thing to steal great ideas, and being a great copycat?
Because I hear people say sometimes, “You know, that guy copied my idea.
That was MY idea!
I came up with this!”
Listen, worry when nobody’s copying what you’re doing, because no one is paying attention
to you.
It is a very, very, very big compliment when somebody copies you.
So let’s talk about this — copycat.
Wait a minute, this is kind of confusing.
Are we really doing a video on copycats?
Yes, we are.
Let’s talk a little bit of history.
I think you’re going to enjoy this part about history.
Let’s talk a little bit about history.
Here we go.
So, one of the greatest players that just recently retired, Kobe Bryant, who scored
61 points in his last game is known as a copycat.
Everybody of his critics would say what?
He copied everything from who?
Michael Jordan.
Now Michael Jordan gets a lot of credit.
He won six championships out of six times and you know, so many times he was a scoring
champion, etc. etc. etc.
Did he copy anybody?
Well, Michael Jordan copied Dr. J., Julius Erving from the 76ers.
Well, did he, and Dr. J. copy anybody else?
David Thompson.
And if you look a the highlights from David Thompson, you will say, “Wait a minute.
That’s Julius Irving.
That’s Kobe, that’s Mike.
. . hang on a second.
They’ve been copying each other this entire time.
Unbelievable!
What a bunch of copycats.
What a bunch of copycats.
By the way, the great ones are experts at this.
Not let me continue a little bit more.
Let me continue a little bit more.
Okay.
This next one’s going to completely flip you out.
Are you ready?
So I have a smartphone here I’m holding.
Who invented the smartphone?
Most of us will say, “Steve Jobs.”
Steve Jobs gets all the credit for smartphones.
Is he really?
Really?
Did he really invent the smartphone?
Did he really invent the smartphone?
I’m curious.
Who do you think invented the smartphone?
What is your answer?
I’ll give you a second here.
Who do you think invented the smartphone?
Did you just say Blackberry?
Did you say Nextel?
Did you maybe say some of these other phones that were coming out?
Who did you say did the smartphone?
Watch this here.
Fifteen years earlier, IBM came out with a smartphone.
It was called the Simon Personal Communicator is what it was called, by IBM.
Fifteen years earlier, they came out with a smartphone.
Now, did IBM come out with the smartphone?
Did they invent the smartphone?
Are they the first ones that came out with a smartphone?
No!
There was an inventor from Greece who came out with the technology and the invention
that he patented.
He was the first person to do it.
His name was Theodore Paraskevakos.
You’ve got to study this.
Out of Greece, he was working for Boeing.
He came out with the invention, he got it patented, but Boeing didn’t do much with it.
Till today, he holds the invention, it’s with him.
It’s his invention on what he did.
But did he come out with the smartphone idea?
No.
Back in 1909, Nikolas Tesla.
Tesla who, Elon Musk admires tremendously, who the car is named Tesla after Nikolas Tesla.
Nikolas Tesla is the first one in 1909 to write out the entire programming saying it
would be great if we could combine a telephone with a computer.
Nikolas Tesla is the first person to come out with the idea of a smartphone that was
then patented by Theodore in Greece, who worked for Boeing, but Theodore was just an inventor.
He wasn’t a big thinker.
Then IBM took that idea and they moved too slow — terrible marketers — too big, so
you know how big companies move very slow.
Then a visionary came in, a big thinker said, “I am Steve Jobs.
We have a cool company.
We are better designers.
We’re going to introduce the smartphone.
And we’re going to sell billions of these things, and we’re going to make people buy
a brand spanking new one every six to 12 months.
And this product alone is going to help us being a six, seven, eight hundred billion
dollar company, depending on when you watch this video.
Why?
Because Steve Jobs was one of the greatest copycats of all time.
And the credit doesn’t go for his ability to being a copycat.
All of us, you watching us, we’re all copycats.
There isn’t a single sole that’s not a copycat.
You may say, “I’m not a copycat.”
Really?
Why do you wear clothes?
Why do you wear clothes?
Did you wake up saying, “I’m going to wear clothes today?”
You’re a copycat!
You wear clothes because other people wear clothes.
Why don’t you walk around naked?
If you really are not a copycat, you’d walk around with no clothes on.
We’re copycats.
Why do we get our hair cut like this?
Why don’t we do our haircuts completely . . . why do we do certain things the way.
. . how come we don’t shave our eyebrows?
Because we are copycats.
There’s certain things that we’re copycats.
There’s nothing wrong with being a copycat.
Here’s the challenge.
Unfortunately, most copycats are small thinkers.
Steve Jobs was a big thinking copycat.
Big thinking copycat.
Shameless about stealing the idea.
Samsung stole their idea.
They got sued for a couple billion dollars, but they still stole the idea.
And Samsung is now Samsung.
You know, the Galaxy S7 or whatever people talk about, they also stole ideas, right?
This continues.
Now is there really a formula for copycats?
I think the best book on copycats is Blue Ocean Strategy.
Let me tell you about the Blue Ocean Strategy.
I’ve recommended this book to so many different people and sometimes people say, “It was a
very boring book.
I did not like it.”
Two million people have bought this book.
Two million copies sold.
And it’s probably one of the best stories on copycats.
Why?
Because it explains to you four different things to becoming an original.
This is another book [Originals by Adam Grant] that I just finished recently.
It’s a phenomenal book that has to do with this message because it explains which originals
were never originals, but we think they were originals.
It’s a phenomenal way Adam Grant tells the story.
But let’s go back to Blue Ocean Strategy, because this tells you the step-by-step, this
one [Originals by Adam Grant] tells you a lot of the stories.
It’s got step-by-step at the end as well.
So what do they talk about in Blue Ocean Strategy?
It’s a very simple formula he talks about in this book.
Very simple.
He says, you’ve got four brackets.
Okay, we can put an image up in this area.
You’ve got four brackets that you’re looking at when thinking about creating a unique product.
One, you’ve got to take your company, your product, whatever you’re doing, and figure
out ways what you can eliminate.
For instance, if competition likes to sell 28 different products, maybe you’re going
to eliminate and come down to three different products.
McDonald’s has 40 different products on their menu and In-N-Out says we’re going to do three.
And we’re going to eliminate such and such and we’re not going to sell salad and we’re
not going to do this.
We’re going to eliminate salads.
So that’s eliminate.
You eliminate with your product.
#2: It talks about reduce.
What can you reduce?
What can you lower?
What can you minimize?
Let’s reduce the size of the menu.
Let’s reduce the amount of options.
Let’s reduce how technical this thing is.
Let’s minimize and get rid of some things that we don’t need to have to make it more
complex.
#3: The third thing is you raise.
What can you elevate?
Can you elevate marketing?
Can you elevate creativity?
Can you elevate delivery?
Can you elevate customer service?
What can you make better?
Then, the last one is create.
What thing can you create that your competitors are not doing?
What can you create that your competitors are not doing?
That gives you the edge of making it unique.
Right?
That’s a very simple formula that anybody can use to helping you become a great copycat.
But remember on the creation part, there’s some things that you’ve got to know about
why we have a certain level of affinity with a Steve Jobs or a Jordan or Kobe or whoever
one of these guys that we’re talking about.
Because what makes you an original, what makes you a great – and eventually you end up becoming
the one that everybody looks at that makes a big difference is your personal stories,
your personal failures, your personal philosophies, that’s the signature that you’re adding to
the world.
Those are your domain.
That’s what makes you authentic.
That’s what makes you you.
But the formula on how to become a copycat is a very simple formula.
There’s a lot of guys that are doing it much better than you.
Who do you copy yourself?
Who do you watch yourself?
Who is somebody that’s doing much better than you?
Is there some people that you’re watching because some people are not worth copying.
You’ve got to realize that a lot of people copy the wrong type of people.
95% of the world is a copycat of the wrong cat that they’re copying.
That is a very big problem.
In business, you’ve got to ask yourself who you’re copying.
Are you copying somebody even worth copying?
Who’s a list of people that you secretly admire that nobody else knows that you follow.
Some people are public about it.
Who are some of the people that you secretly admire.
And you say, “I love his approach that he does this.
I love how he does that.
I love the fact that he does this.
What can I do to make it better?
How can I make that better?
How can I add a twist to it of my own?
What stories can I add with it?
Half the business books, if you look at business books, the foundation is all what?
Same thing.
Why do we buy?
Why do we connect with certain books and not other books?
Stories.
Stories.
Half the books you buy are very similar.
Half the books are love stories.
What are they about?
She had a man, he didn’t treat her well.
She met a new one.
He was amazing.
They fell in love.
They’ve been married for 62 years.
Oh my gosh!
She was dating a man.
He didn’t appreciate her.
He cared more about the cars.
He cared more about sports.
His best friend was paying attention to her.
One day, he’s not doing well.
They spent lunch together.
She realizes the person she loves is the friend.
Oh my gosh.
All of a sudden, he’s Italian, she’s Mexican, they realize they have certain connections
together.
Their parents love each other.
They’ve been married now for 42 years.
And then there was a breakup.
He loses it.
He dies.
Then she goes back to.
. . I mean, it’s like the same old same old, but oh my gosh, this is so amazing!
It’s the same exact thing with a couple of different twists to it.
You’ve just got to realize with the 80 years you’ve got in your life, 79 years you’ve got
in this world living, one, who do you copy, two, what areas do you copy, three, how big
do you think to make that become your original, where you make the biggest impact with that
one little thing or two little things that you copied in your life.
So, this was one of my favorite episodes that I wanted to do.
I really had a lot of fun just reading and going through the notes myself.
So if you’ve got any questions, comment on the bottom.
If you’ve got any thoughts, comment on the bottom.
I actually personally respond myself to this.
Typically, at midnight, but I do respond myself to the comments.
And by the way, if you haven’t subscribed to this channel, please do so.
Our goal is 100,000 by August 31st.
We need as many people to help us get to 100,000 subscribers by August 31st.
You will hear about something major that I’ll be launching here between now and then, with
a new product, and if you’re watching this video on a completely different website, you
can always go back to PatrickBetDavid.com.
Give me the ring tone, there you go, baby.
You can always go to PatrickBetDavid.com.
There’s a bunch of other content there for entrepreneurship.
And subscribe to the newsletter as well to stay connected with us.
Thanks for watching everybody.
Take care.
Bye bye.
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