First movers take the biggest risk.

What they do may or may not work.

Their costs and time investments are also high because they are chartering a new path.

And because of all these reasons, if a risk they take does not work out, they will take a lot longer to stand up again to take another chance.

Second movers have none of these disadvantages.

Their risk is less because they can go after ideas that are proven to work.

They know the pitfalls to avoid them and have a higher success rate.

They can plan their activities in detail and usually have a support ecosystem, so their costs and time investment will be low.

And, in case they fail, the impact of their failure on their ability to stand up and move forward again won’t be as much as for a first mover.

Second movers also know the weaknesses of the first movers so they can win by fixing those weaknesses in their plan and execution.

And they know of all the opportunities which first movers didn’t know existed.

Thanks to all this, if you ever thought it would have been better if you were the first mover in any field, pause that thought and use all the advantages of a second-mover for your benefit.