Ever hear of the Cobra effect?

Do you study human behavior? 

As an entrepreneur, most everything we do has an “action-reaction” component to it.

After all, this isn’t a job…it’s how we pay the bills, make our living, serve our clients…and (if you have big vision) make an impact.

So, we had our kids read an article called The Cobra Effect.

In it we learned a little about the Cobras of colonial India.

Imagine that you live in a city, and there’s a major problem.

There are literally too many freaking Cobra’s in the city.

Being the intelligent people that we are, we need to do something…right?

Seriously, they’re Cobras!

SO, the government did the right thing and put a bounty on them. 

And it had the desired result…the population decreased.

Good news, right?

(This is what we call a plot twist)

People had become dependent upon the bounties, and as the population decreased there were less to be paid.

(Can you see it yet?)

Well, some entrepreneurial hunters began breeding and raising the cobras in their homes…so they could collect the bounty. 

And the local authorities realized that there were not a lot of snakes any more…

…so the stopped the bounty program…

…and all the hunters released their captive snakes into the city.

Of course, the city ended up with WORSE cobra problem than before they implemented the bounty.

This is what is affectionately called the law of unintended consequences.

It’s not a system that’s unique to the old colonial government of India.

• What unintended consequences are you building into your business?
• Do they know you always run sales?
• Do you only mail when you run a promotion?
• Do you overdeliver so bad that one course will overwhelm your students for years?
• Do you run promotions, or do you have a “flow” that keeps your clients moving forward?

So much to unpack here…

But, what ‘unintended consequence are you building into your business?

Brandon “Can you see it” Pugsley