Are You Still Copying?

“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing,” said Salvador Dalí. Young artists often learn their craft by copying the masters in their field. This copying is a stepping stone on the journey to mastery. For example, the Beatles started by spending years playing others’ songs. This gave them a musical foundation on which they later built their original and greatly varied work.

Useful and instructive though it is, imitating others can be a dangerous trap. Having learned from the masters, you must then start making creations of your own, lest you become only an imitator of the ideas, creations, styles and ways of others. Here are five reasons not to let that happen:

1. Copying eventually makes you weak

Copying looks like a shortcut to success. And it’s true — copying is a quick way to make a few bucks. But copying prevents you from long-term success. A copycat business lacks a strong core. Every great business has an initial product on which its future success rests. Think of Gillette’s razor blades, Henry Ford’s production process, Coca-Cola’s secret formula, or Google’s search algorithm.

2. Copycats are easy to spot

If you only copy what others have done, people will notice, and probably sooner rather than later. As Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” When people see that you’re a fake, they will spread the word, and these days word spreads fast.

3. Copycats fail

You might be thinking, “But there’s a market for copies. Just think of all the people who want fake Rolexes!” But how much money would you pay for a fake Rolex? That’s a key problem for copycat companies: people won’t pay much for copies, but originality gets overcompensated. Copycats have to compete on price, and face a daily fight for survival, a fight that they will eventually lose.

4. Copycats are the antithesis of innovators

In their book Rework, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson explain why copycats fail: “If you’re a copycat, you can never keep up. You’re always in a passive position. You never lead; you always follow. You give birth to something that is already behind the times — just a knock-off, an inferior version of the original. That’s no way to live.” Or as Steve Jobs said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Copycats are followers, and find it very difficult to become innovation leaders.

5. Copycats lack deep understanding

Copying something doesn’t require that you understand it. However, this seeming blessing soon turns into a curse. Fried and Hansson explain: “The problem with copying is that it skips understanding — and understanding is how you grow.” Developing deep understanding of something takes a lot of time and hard work, but it is the prerequisite to truly original innovation on which a great business can be built.

For example, it took me 7 years to create X-IDEA, Thinkergy’s innovation method. Having been through the process, I see only a few innovation companies worldwide who have done what it takes to develop a solid, comprehensive, sophisticated innovation method with broad applicability to all innovation challenges. Aside from those few companies, I don’t see any others as serious competitors. A solid method is the heart of an innovation company. Pretty design, or the correct buzzwords, may make an innovation method appear professional, but it’s the coherence and integration of a method that makes it great. Building a method with those attributes requires passion and time and the willingness to practice, practice, practice, to find out what produces results.

Conclusion: Take a look at what your firm produces and ask: How original and unique are your products? How much depth do they have? Are you a leader or follower in your industry? What can you do to go deeper and create more meaning and value? What can you do today to stop copying, and instead become the original that others copy?

Are you still copying?