Enablers are the biggest winners

Enable. Empower. Facilitate.
These are a common set of words heard in most pitches, vision and mission statements. Because most organisations and institutions want to enable others to do something, instead of doing that something themselves. And when you pick the right something to enable and empower, you win.
Look around you. All the products and services you use, enable you to do something.

As everything enables you to do something, from platforms like facebook to the spanner in your garage, we need to define and restrict the scope of this article by defining what enablers are.
Enablers are simply tools that help you achieve something where you have to put in the work.
Throughout history, there have been major paradigm shifts where the human race moves on to the next big thing.

In recent history, a few of the major shifts were the the automobile & railways, industrial revolution, computers, internet and now AI and blockchain. The shift could be due to various reasons, which ultimately point towards improving our lives.
For us to win, we need to identify these shifts early on and enable people to shift to them in a fast, easy and a cost effective manner.
And if we’re successfully able to facilitate this change, we win.
The extent of the win depends on how big the shift is and how many people are going to shift to it. The larger the shift, the bigger is the win.

In the 80’s and 90’s, computers were the next major technological shift. Software makers like Microsoft identified this very early and capitalised on it well by building software that could increase the utility of the computer, thus making the shift easier for people.

And so was the era of internet browsers in the late 90’s. Netscape and Internet Explorer made it easier for people to browse the internet.

Website builders like Wordpress in the late 90’s and early 2000’s were really successful by enabling anyone to quickly setup a website of their own with hardly any coding required. While there are still so many service oriented agencies that completely build the website for you, they are not the winners.
The real big winners are always the enablers, those who offer you tools to build something you want, where the effort is put in by you.
Here’s an interesting story to solidify the above statement even more.

The discovery of gold nuggets in the Sacramento Valley in early 1848 sparked the Gold Rush, arguably one of the most significant events to shape American history during the first half of the 19th century.
As news spread of the discovery, thousands of prospective gold miners traveled by sea or over land to San Francisco and the surrounding area; by the end of 1849, the non-native population of the California territory was some 100,000 (compared with the pre-1848 figure of less than 1,000). A total of $2 billion worth of precious metal was extracted from the area during the Gold Rush, which peaked in 1852.
However, only a minority of miners made much money from the Californian Gold Rush. The real winners were the locals who provided the miners with over priced food, tools and supplies that enabled the miners to dig for gold.

