When do you "earn the right" to create your own category?

I definitely don’t think you need to earn the right – or at least, no one gave us the right to do so with Customer Success.

At the end of the day, category creation has more to do with the people within the job function that you’re serving than the actual product that you sell. I don’t find that morally dubious, I believe that eventually all products become somewhat commoditized. Pepsi or Coke? At the end of the day, what people buy into is the brand that you’ve developed and the trust that you’ve created with your customers and the market at large.

In SaaS for example, there’s a big push on prescriptiveness today. Customers don’t “just” want your product, but they want you to help them realize the outcomes that they’re trying to drive. Part of that is through your product set, but likely a bigger part of that is (a) best practices oriented around the job / career, (b) benchmarking against a cohort of customers that look like them, and (c) connecting them with resources and networking to help them become successful.

As usual, a five-star response from Anthony.

I tend to be very direct, so my answer is simply: If you don't feel you have the right to create a category by virtue of your mere existence, you're not a leading-edge entrepreneur. Full stop. You just don't have the right personality for it. 

Which isn't a knock on you. You might still be an awesome entrepreneur in an established industry. Or a tremendous visionary, or a great leader. High-tech entrepreneurship is an important thing but could not possibly be more overhyped than it has been in recent years...