(Re)Building a better mousetrap

I get approached by fellow entrepreneurs, fellow developers and fellow big thinkers A LOT to work on sideline projects of all types. I mean, the Gordon Gekko-esque "I see a hundred deals a day...I choose one" cliche isn't that far off base. It's nice that I've reached a point in my career that people can rely on me to get work done effectively, that it happens often enough to make it worth my while, and that I'm able to choose which project(s) to take on. Hell, I spent my formative years taking anything and everything under the sun to build such a rep in the first place.

Anyhoo, one such inquiry presented itself the other day in the form of a request to build a localized version of Craig's List. Not a bad idea. I've been asked in the past to architect a Guam-centric Amazon, eBay, Google, and other such globally-dominant products. No kidding.

But the main problem I have with doing copycat services/apps/businesses is that they could be really great when they exist in their own little operating space...but what happens when/if the main platforms they started out in tribute to in the first place take an interest in our little market here and - GASP! - actually extend their reach to us? It's not such a stretch. Take Google Earth's recent addition of Guam and our neighboring islands in the Western Pacific - if someone out here has built anything even remotely like a mapping app, it's surely gotten buried.

Should Craig's List decide to shine its holy light on residents out here, it would easily and immediately render anything trying to copy it obsolete. So money derived from the development of said service notwithstanding, I ask: what's the point?

Certainly imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And I've developed many an original idea by outright emulating someone else's work and then letting project/scope creep take over and morph the product into something completely original unto itself. But that having been said, I'm more of the mind of coming up with a really big, completely unique idea or killer solution. If I wanted to build a better eBay, I would have done it by now...if not for profit, for fun, or for anyone else, then at least to improve my own experience. Part of what leads me to turn away gigs is their survivability (or lack thereof). If a project is doomed to be run aground by a more formidable opponent, I tend not to get involved.

Adrian created ChicagoCrime.org, which blew everyone away, and was something really new. That's what I normally go after.