i’ve heard it said before: “someone’s doing the work anyway. so, we might as well do it and get the money for it instead of our competitors.”

that’s a dangerous line of thinking.

one of the things i love most about jimmy john’s is that they don’t offer hot sandwiches. almost every other hoagie chain offers toasted sandwiches made to order, but jimmy john’s would rather spend their efforts focusing on speed instead. they want to give you a delicious cold sandwich in a few seconds rather than have you clogging up their lines deciding what toppings you want and waiting around for your sandwich to be toasted. no other sandwich shop can claim the speed that jimmy john’s can.

the problem with going after the easy money and doing the work someone else can do is that it pushes you towards the center of the marketplace and puts you on the track to mediocrity. it’s better to provide a service or products to the very passionate fringe than it is to try pleasing the fickle masses.

sure, somewhere along the way someone’s doing the work. but that doesn’t mean you ought to.