A few weeks back I wrote a post about how some of the best entrepreneurs are never satisfied. They are self-aware, intellectually honest, super responsive and they keep pushing.
I’ve been thinking about early adopters a bunch lately too.
Some early adopters are very much responsible for a company/products long term success. They are the core community and the soul of that community. They keep pushing things forward in a positive way. They recruit other users. They give constructive feedback to the company. They use the product in new ways and they learn and share their learnings. They build stuff.
Seth Godin’s recent post sums up this thought nicely:
“If you will miss a product, a service, a book, a site or a professional when they close up shop, stand up, speak up and bring them masses of new business.
We get what we promote.”
That’s so right.
But there are other kinds of early adopters. They create negative drag. Or they can be jealous and it comes off with remarks like “that idea was stupid anyway”. Or the type that will just try any new thing, quickly say they love it and then just tear it down on a moments notice. Or the ones with huge ego’s that believe that their opinion is the superior one. Or the only one opinion in the room.
There are plenty examples of both types of early adopters.
I love it when a product finds it way into a core group of positive early adopters.
It ain’t always easy. But that’s the best.