When I was a young man, I was taught to think about growth businesses or growth industries in terms of the military. The guys who start the business, or pioneer a new industry, are analogous to the elite units sent in to establish a beachhead or breech the perimeter. These guys are goal oriented and never bogged down with a lot of rules. In fact, they tend to hate the rules as they see rules as artificial obstacles to their task. In business, the pioneers often start out trying to subvert the rules.
A new industry, like a new conquest, may start out as a series of attacks along the frontier, but eventually it must establish itself as a self-sustaining camp with the perimiter of the established order. The computer business went from experimental ideas in the lab to simple products that could be used in fields like finance or banking. Read this book and you’ll see how the first nerds established their beachhead on Wall Street. The risk takers sought out the rick takers for their risky new ideas.
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