Being first is overrated.

Meet Andy Kaufman.

Believe it or not, we owe quite a bit to this man. Our favorite movies, TV shows and stand-up comedians are heavily influenced by this man. Some claim he invented ‘half of modern day comedy.’

• Before there was Borat, there was Tony Clifton.
• Uncle Andy’s Playhouse was taped 9 years before Pee-wee’s Playhouse.
• Mr. Kaufman was making us cringe well-before Mr. Scott.

But we don’t talk about Andy Kaufman.

Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams, Bill Cosby & George Carlin all dwarfed Andy’s commercial success and popularity. Being ‘first,’ is overrated.

The iPod was not the worlds first mp3 player. Friendster & MySpace had a ‘head-start’ on Facebook. General Motors saw decades of prosperity in-spite of Henry Ford inventing the automobile.

Being second or third or forth can be an advantage.

Learn from the mistakes of others. Don’t make something completely different. Take an existing product or service and make it better. Make it smaller. Make it bigger. Make it funnier or more serious! Anything to create a more pleasing experience for the user. A feature or service the previous person, business or product didn’t provide. Improvement is the new innovation. Actually as we’ve learned today, it’s a really old form of innovation.

[Author]

Chris Prestemon is a writer & strategist @ happyMedium.