Learning Lessons, the Hard Way Doing solid investigative market research is like peeling an onion. The more layers you peel, the more you reveal. And it also might bring tears to your eyes if you discover that your product vision is not actually unique. But don’t you want to know what it will take to beat the competition sooner rather than later? If you don’t know what you don’t know, you are at risk of learning the hard way. Take, for instance, my dear father. In 1976, at the age of 38, he got up the courage to quit his full-time job as the area management supervisor for a popular California restaurant chain. He’d been working for others since he graduated from UCLA with an accounting degree and was eager to be an entrepreneur. His good friend did well for himself by opening several hot dog stands in the Los Angeles area. So, my father was confident that his own management experience would bring him success. He soon found a hot dog stand for sale next to a carwash in North Hollywood. He watched the operation briefly and saw how very few customers came to the stand even while their cars were being washed. The place was run down, and the owner appeared indifferent to his customers. My father saw an opportunity for turning the stand into a profitable business and bought it immediately. Figure 4-2 shows how he gave everything a fresh coat of paint, updated the menu, and put up a big sign that said the stand was under “new management.”