Adaptation is one of the most widely used principles for creating powerful niches. It's simply looking at what another successful business; product, service, or person is doing, then finding a way to adapt it to your own business, product, service, or self.

Henry Ford did it when he adapted the assembly line concept to making Model T Fords. The banking industry did it when they adapted the drive-thru concept from the fast food industry. And the oil industry did it when they adapted the self-service concept from the 7-Eleven type outlets.

Because of the success of this principle, it's getting harder and harder to tell where an original idea came from. If an idea works in one business or industry, the next step is for a business in a different industry to test if it can work for them. This can create a decisive advantage over their competitors.

The main question to ask when applying the principle of adaptation is "will object A work with object B?" That's the formula.

The simplest way to create a new idea is to do what others have already done successfully. Next, see if you can adapt it to your own business, product, or service. Show me a successful business, and I'll show you a business that has adapted some aspect of what they do from other places.

You can find endless examples of products and services that use the principle of adaptation. In fact, a fun exercise you can play is to see how many ads you can find that apply adaptation to their product or service.

For instance, I just saw an ad telling the virtues of a

Are you starting to see how you can adapt a successful idea, old or new, from another product, business, or industry to your own? If you can, it could make the difference between success and failure. It could propel you ahead of your competition almost overnight.

When you apply the principle of adaptation, your using the natural process of how your brain functions. That's why anyone can do this; it doesn't require a college degree, or even a high school diploma. All that's needed to succeed is your attention, along with a pen and paper to write down the ideas your brain spits out to you.

The principle of adaptation is used in thousands of products and services today. For example, Velcro is used as a fastener for clothing and shoes; it's also being adapted to hundreds of other uses.

Velcro can be used as picture hanger, as a book fastener, to secure items on shelves in case of earthquakes (comes in handy if you live in California). In fact, Velcro can be used on any object that needs holding down, closing or hanging up. This is not a commercial for Velcro, but a simple illustration to how the principle of adaptation works.

Use the principle of adaptation in your business and watch your profits soar