While you have to believe 100% in what you’re doing, do beware of becoming over-zealous in your quest to change the world of business/industry/whatever.

Because Sir Clive Sinclair did and the world wasn’t laughing with him, it was laughing at him (with incredulity) when he proposed the Sinclair C5. The idea that you could be a real contender on Britain’s roads in a vehicle that had a top speed of 15mph and would barely have left a mark on the road if it had been run-over by a 10-tonne lorry, was too ridiculous for words.

But Sir Clive isn’t alone. Even giants like Coca-Cola have got it woefully wrong. In 1984 Coca-Cola, concerned that their sales margin over Pepsi had dropped to just 2.9% devised a new recipe for coke and launched “New Coke”. Within days it was receiving upwards of 80,000 calls of complaint daily. Three months later the management of Coca-Cola had re-instated the old recipe. The “Real Thing” had returned.

And do you remember the old 1980s VHS vs Betamax battle? Sony’s home video system, Betamax, launched in 1975 had the technical edge on its rival VHS. And for the first few years the two battled it out. But Sony, in its desire to monopolise the industry had shot itself in the foot, and it was soon out-manoeuvred by the many competitors who were licensed to produce the VHS system. The rest, as they say is history – along with the Betamax name - as far as home video goes.

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