CHAPTER 1

Myth #1

Entrepreneurs Must Be Innovators

The only innovation was to put chili and lime juice on the popcorn instead of butter.

—Miguel Davila, cofounder, Cinemex

Do entrepreneurs need to be engineers, have a wall of patents, or work in the proverbial garage (or in the fad du jour, an accelerator)? The cases in Worthless will show that whereas those assets can be useful and important, extraordinary value is often created from gaps in existing markets, from the copying of businesses from one market to another, or in industries that (mistakenly, in my opinion) few consider innovative—real estate, commodity trade, financial services, import agencies, retail, and so forth. Furthermore, much value can be created with what I have called

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