Look at me Now... I'm getting paper.

Supply and Demand

The people behind the greatest success stories come from all walks of life, but the stories themselves have many similarities.  One of the main traits is simplicity.  Stripping away layers of inefficiency and redundancy to focus on the bare naked truth almost always leads to a breakthrough.

Enter David Hasselhoff.

If I came up to you today and told you that I have a great idea about a crime fighter who uses nothing more than his talking car, you would probably laugh in my face.  But in the 1980’s, everyone loved leather jackets and sports cars so David Hasselhoff gave us Knight Rider and it fit right in.  No plot twists, no deep and emotional acting performances, just car chases, fight scenes and one of the top shows of that decade.

“The Hoff’s” real gem however, came a decade later.  If there is one fact above all in Hollywood, its that sex sells.  Period.  So David created Baywatch.  It really gets no simpler – a beach where beautiful lifeguards save lives. More money was spent on slow motion technology than the actual writing of the show.  People simply tuned in to see models and Playboy Playmates “act”.  Yes, I know this all sounds absolutely ridiculous but Baywatch was shown in more countries than any show in television history.

For all intents and purposes, David Hasselhoff can’t sing.  His music won’t win a Grammy or even promoted in the United States.  But in Germany (for some reason), they absolutely love his music.  So guess what?  He releases album after album and is a multi-platinum selling artist.  Many times the answer is as clear as day but people choose to ignore it.  If people want the color blue, don’t lead in with red, arc with black and climax with blue.  Instead, start with blue, continue with blue and end with blue.

If you have an idea that can’t get off the ground, the answer isn’t always what you can add, but rather what you can remove to make it truly stick.  What people want is rarely complex and oftentimes seek the easiest solution to meet their needs.  Netflix worked because people didn’t want to pay late fees, Twitter took off because people wanted to quickly share their thoughts, and David Hasselhoff became incredibly wealthy for something just as simple.

He gave the people exactly what they wanted.