By Javon Frazier, founder/CEO of Maestro Media.
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Far too often you hear about these “game changers” and entrepreneurs who experience overnight success with their first major product and then subsequently face massive failure shortly after when their next big thing ultimately flops. No single person, product or brand has a 100% perfect record, and everyone and everything experiences pitfalls here and there.
So why do these same mistakes, where you first see massive success followed by gut-wrenching failure, continue to happen on a surprisingly regular basis? From what I’ve seen, it’s a case of the Midas Touch Syndrome, where people see success in one area, and immediately jump at the opportunity to “continue the momentum” with wide eyes and misguided confidence that they can do no wrong.
As we know from the classic Greek tale, King Midas was gifted with the ability to turn everything he touched into gold. However, this “gift” quickly turned into a disaster, with Midas wishing to relinquish it in the end. When people have a hit product release, what often follows is the sentiment that the next product will be just as big or bigger. There is also a tendency for a higher risk tolerance given the belief that success in one area will lead to success in another. Just look at the tremendous amount of bad music albums we have from top athletes or actors.
We recently experienced a strong case of Midas Touch Syndrome ourselves after we hit it big with the launch of the seventh most successful game of all time on Kickstarter. We were riding a wave of notoriety and success, and with that came numerous offers for other games and opportunities. With our newfound confidence, we were in discussion to sign games that were outside of our core offering with the belief that we’d make it work given our recent success. We even considered products outside of the game space and also entertained various business acquisitions with the idea that we could transfer our success in games to these new product areas and businesses. These were all recipes for failure, and thankfully we reversed our course of action on these before the products launched.
The allure of new products and innovations can be seen as a tool for rapid growth, but in actuality, it can be equally dangerous if not aligned with products that have been the key to your success. Constant expansions, pivots and strategies du jure are damaging to morale when the new initiatives are not aligned with employee expectations of the organization.
The Midas Touch Syndrome can be exceptionally deadly to small businesses if not caught in time as it can affect the company’s core strategy and cause the company to lose sight of its vision and purpose. Most importantly, the financial risk of a failure caused by this syndrome can put a company out of business. Growth is a double-edged sword, and small businesses often grow themselves out of business.
After some distractions, we made the right decisions and our company is stronger with a renewed focus on our core values. Here are my tips to help other companies avoid the Midas Touch Syndrome:
1. Focus on what you and your team do best.
2. Develop a strong mission statement and use it as your guiding light.
3. Seek extensive outside counsel from stakeholders and, more importantly, non-stakeholders on all business decisions—let them play devil’s advocate.
4. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
5. Lean into the power of “No” to fend off the distractions of shiny new objects.
6. Compensate the feeling of loss for not pursuing a new opportunity by transferring your energy to innovating in your core products.
7. It’s the CEO’s job to stay focused and not go down rabbit holes.
8. The savviest CEOs say “no” more than they say “yes” (just ask Warren Buffet).
Overall, focus on what your company is strong at and constantly work toward innovating your strengths and improving your core products and services.
