Your products <em>will</em> fail. So what to do?

No matter how innovative, no matter how good you think it is, no matter how many people say they'll buy it, no matter how much research you've put into it, no matter how unique the idea -- chances are -- that product will fail. One word: Segway. (Blah!) If you rejoice at the concept that any product will fail no matter how innovative, you'll tackle your next product with a much wiser perspective. Coming into any product knowing that it has a high chance at failure, you'll approach it this way:

• You won't spend as much cash on R&D
• You won't milk your company on funding and marketing it
• You won't delay the product until it's "perfect," wasting time and resources
• You'll save tremendous time by releasing your products early
• You'll get quick customer response to the validity of your product
• You'll learn quickly about delivering successful products

And most importantly, you'll have money left over if the product fails. Chances are, it will -- but, by delivering more products, you'll increase your chances of succeeding.

What if I'm trying to build the next-gen-revolution product?

You could use all your eggs, but we wouldn't recommend it. Instead, take small steps. There has to be one, small, thing that won't consume all your cash, and will ignite that spark to your next-gen-revolution product. Think Facebook and its financially manageable Harvard-students-first audience, or Google with its initial Stanford student population, or HP and its initially small technology solutions for Disney.

Keep your eggs in check

The key, as we said, is not to use all your eggs. You will fail, and you'll need more eggs if that ever happens (and it will). Small steps ignite revolutions. You can't reach the top of Mount Everest by taking one giant leap.

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