The Leapfrog Effect

Everything Is Possible

Once you start internalizing the “Success leaves Traces” process to the point that it becomes natural to you, you’ll be amazed at how much you can actually understand and accomplish in a short period of time.

You can throw anything at me, and I will be able to repeat the process back to you, the steps and the correct order of how it needs to be done.

How can I do that?

It’s certainly not because I’m smarter than everyone else; it’s because I immediately think about how I would do it. I start breaking it down into steps in chronological order and then I can tell you what needs to be done first, second, third and so on.

Let’s take a hypothetical situation… let’s say I want to create a guitar manufacturing company…how would I go about doing it?

The first thing I would do is find out the best possible way to make a guitar. The second thing I would do is find out who the top guitar companies are.

Let’s say I determine that Martin is the best guitar manufacturer. This is who I will be competing against.

First, I will look at is what are the Martin bodies made out of? That’s easy enough; I can Google that, after all it’s public knowledge.

Second, I would try to determine is if there is a better type of wood that would give my guitars a better sound.

Third, I would research to see if there’s a better process than they use.

Martin uses a specific process and they produce guitars in mass quantity. Can I figure out a better process or is there a better process already out there that I could use to make my guitars more efficiently?

Is there something that makes Martin guitars sound better than other guitars? If so, what makes them sound better? Then I would search to see if there is something that could improve the sound even more.

What are they using for materials?

Are they using oak or some other type of wood? What kinds of inlays are they using on the fret? What are the tuning pegs made of? Are they metal or plastic?

What kind of strings do they normally use? Do they manufacture their own strings or are they purchasing a special string? Is that the best string available?

I would break down each piece and ask these questions. Do they make it? If not, who makes it? Is it the best available?

Next I would make a list of all the different pieces of my “perfect world” guitar and find out if there’s a better way to manufacture this guitar.

How would I go about setting up a guitar manufacturing company? Or, do I need to manufacture it myself?

Maybe I can find the world’s best guitar makers, who craft them by hand, and we could team up to use their expertise and knowledge to start this company. By using their expertise maybe I can attract financial backers, by promoting the fact that I have the world’s leading guitar experts working with me.

Now that I have acquired the knowledge, expertise and financial backing I’m ready to develop the company!

I now have the best and most knowledgeable people in the world on my team and to increase my credibility I would get all the famous guitar players I know and give them free guitars and let them show the world that my guitars are better!!!

My shtick could be, “I’m not as good as Martin—I’m better—and I can prove it!”

I would instantly have a guitar manufacturing company that would produce the highest quality guitars possible. They would be better than the established brands that have been around for years and years.

This concept is called the “Leapfrog Effect,” and it’s the concept that Success Leaves Traces is built upon.

The Leapfrog effect basically says you find out what all your competitors, in a specific genre, are doing and take their best practices and apply them to whatever you wish to do.

The example I just used was making guitars. I found out who the number one company was because that’s the one everyone wants to beat. It’s the logical place to start. I didn’t need to waste time and go through all the other companies…I just started at number one.

Although I would review the best practices from all the top companies and add anything that they do better than the number one company.

Amplify It

My next question is how can I make it better or amplify it?

Is there a better process, something I can do to make a better product? Now I’m going to try to put together a better product based upon what I learned from observing the top companies in the industry…and then add my improvements which enable me to build a better product more efficiently.

My next step is to take the product to the marketplace with proof that it actually works.

What just happened?

I created a better product; I didn’t start at the bottom like everyone says you need to…I “leapfrogged” to the top!

Can this same process be applied to personal development or something that’s not business related? Yes!

Let’s say I want to run a marathon. First I ask, “has someone run a marathon before?” Of course they have. In fact, millions of people have run marathons before. But, I don’t want to just “run” a marathon, I want to “WIN” a marathon.

Can I do it? Technically and hypothetically I could, if I wanted to do it bad enough and put the required work and training into it.

How would I go about doing it?