Don’t Copy John Hammond’s Prehistoric Approach To Finding Your Market

Many new small businesses and entrepreneurs make the cardinal sin of creating a product/service first and then looking for a market that will buy it later. Of course, this is a backasswards approach to starting a business and several new companies go bankrupt learning this fact.

And that’s AFTER they’ve spent everything they have (and everything their wife has) on this glorious, revolutionary product that they believe will change the world.

The old adage, “If you build it, they will come” still rings true to this day, despite numerous examples to the contrary.

In my years as a copywriter, I’ve seen many business owners and entrepreneurs spend months or years of their life (and a good chunk of their fortune) creating a product…

…but not test to make sure there was a MARKET for said product.

They become trapped in a beautiful delusion where people line up and behave like the “Just take my money!” meme.

Hell, they don’t even need to advertise!

This was the exact mindset of John Hammond, the creator of Jurassic Park.

In my personal opinion, Hammond was right about only one thing. People would be amazed from seeing real-life dinosaurs. If it were me seeing a brachiosaurus for the first time, I would have been like Alan Grant, not able to stand up straight, dizzy from disbelief. But that was as far as Hammond’s dream should have gone.

For one thing, he didn’t even test his product to see IF PEOPLE WOULD WANT TO SEE DINOSAURS UP CLOSE!

Watching Jurassic Park now as an adult, I find myself questioning a lot of Hammond's decisions.

For example, why did he think it was such a good idea to have the automated vehicles just stroll up to dinosaur paddocks, well within biting distance, as if they were harmless animals at the zoo?"

Wouldn’t a large percentage of people freak the hell out after seeing a Tyrannosaurus up close?

Even if the park assured them it was safe?

He simply assumed people would love it, which is what a lot of business owners do.

When he brought in Alan Grant, Ellie Saddler, and Ian Malcolm, and had them witness the spectacle of live dinosaurs, Hammond expected them to rubber-stamp the park almost immediately.

Also, Hammond never put the park through its paces to make sure it was actually SAFE. Wouldn’t this take YEARS to do?

He would have to study the dinosaurs as well as any attempts they would make to escape their paddock, test the electrified fences for weaknesses, make sure the flora didn’t make them sick, and spend months watching the animals to make sure they were incapable of mating, rather than just ASSUMING they wouldn’t be able to.

He only brought in Grant, Saddler, and Malcolm AFTER the park had been finished instead of during the design phase like he should have. He also should have had the scientists study the dinosaurs from afar. But the reality was that Hammond wanted people to endorse his dream, not challenge it.

And I think there are a lot of future entrepreneurs and business owners out there with this same mentality. Somehow, they just know that THEIR product will be the one that either changes the world or makes them rich.

And once they realize that nobody is in line to buy their product, it’s usually after they’ve already spent every penny they owned.

What should you do instead? Find a market first, one that has already proven that they have a need for a product like yours, and then create a product around that market. There are so many niches that people are willing to buy products from that there’s really no excuse not to find one that is both interesting to you and your potential customers.

At THE VERY LEAST, nobody will get eaten.

If you have a question or want to discuss a potential copywriting project with me, simply click “Contact” at the top of my website.