The Mech Touch

To be honest, Ves did not possess that much exposure with regards to the running of other mech companies. He only vaguely kept track of the rise and fall of the ventures of other mech designers when he spent some time on an industry news portal.

What he was teaching right now to the Rawlings mech design students ought to be part of the businesses courses in their curriculum.

However, even if they already learned these lessons in class, Ves believed that it might be different when it came from the mouth of someone who recently went through the startup process.

\”Starting a mech company to compete in a market environment that is already flooded with the products you want to introduce is difficult. Immensely difficult.\” Ves smacked his hand against his palm in emphasis. \”The basic question that should be roiling in your heads as you invest a fortune in a mech workshop or a larger production facility is what value you are bringing to the table. What distinguishes your mechs from the mechs designed by people who are older, more skilled, more experienced, more famed and more entrenched in the market?\”

Some of the students began to absorb his words. They were getting absorbed in his train of thought.

However, many others still remained unaffected. The lesson wasnʼt catching on to them, either because they had no intention of going independent or they possessed too much confidence in their abilities.

Evidently, Ves had to work harder to pop the bubbles surrounding the latter group of students.

\”In the mech market, the bigger fish such as the Journeymen, Seniors and the huge trans-galactic enterprises already capture the bulk of each product segment. The good news is that Novices and Apprentices are still able to earn a decent living between the cracks. The bad news is that the amount of Novices and Apprentices competing over these tiny spaces in the market is enough to form a new black hole! Can you imagine such a sight?!\”

The strange analogy sure caught the attention of a few more students.

\”Maybe I should put it in clearer terms. Imagine a round pie where a dozen Seniors each divide the cake equally between each other. Theyʼve cut the cake so well that only crumbs are left behind. Now imagine you, the other students in this hall and multiply that by a thousand fighting over the crumbs that can barely fill your belly, let alone stimulate your taste buds! Does that sound great to you? Does that seem easy to you?\”

The gravity of the dire situation of startups became more evident when put in this way.

Ves smirked. \”Certainly, the crumbs of the pie is actually enough to sustain plenty of mech companies during their startup stages, but there is only so much hunger they can sate. Imagine all of you Rawlings students competing over a single crumb. Who gets to decide which mech designer gets to pop this crumb in their mouth?\”

He pointed at a random mech designer!

\”You?\”

He shifted his finger towards another mech designer?

\”Or you?\”

He let out a laugh.

\”The mech market isnʼt a lottery. Relying on random chance wonʼt secure a place in the market for you and your business venture. You have to fight for it! Now, some of you may think that you are beyond such concerns because you enjoy advantages that others donʼt. Perhaps your family or noble house is willing to dump a lot of money on you. Perhaps you have a generous mentor who is willing to prop you up.\”

Quite a number of mech designers nodded as they did indeed enjoy certain advantages.

\”Well, while enjoying solid backing guarantees that you can get a foot in the door, entering the building is another matter! The inside of the building is already bursting with other mech designers, and it is extremely selective of which mech designer is allowed to enter! Backing means nothing if your products and your mech design abilities are merely average!\”

For emphasis, Ves raised his hands. The main projection came to life again. Unlike the vivid footage from before, now the projection depicted several choice statistics in the form of giant graphs and tables.

Every mech designer was versed in statistics. They each took in the statistics and grimaced.

This was because Ves chose to project the figures of the survival rate of mech company startups in the Sentinel Kingdom in the last couple of decades!

Not only that, but he even chose to depict a graph that displayed the success rate of mech companies founded by mech designers of different backgrounds.

All of the figures were abysmally low and all of them reached the single percentages!

The other notable finding of this graph was that the background didnʼt matter!

Mech designers with an ordinarily middle-class commoner upbringing succeeded just as much as those born with silver spoons in their mouths!

While there were some mild variations in the success rate of each different category of mech designers, the differences werenʼt statistically significant!

\”Iʼm not sure whether your teachers have shown you this graph before, but Iʼm showing you this now because these are the results of your predecessors. Many of them were like you, confident and conceited in the belief that you are special and that you will definitely succeed where others have failed. While confidence is important in pursuing your ambition, never think that successful mech designers are exempt from failure! Which Senior or Master havenʼt suffered major setbacks in their careers?!\”

He swept his hand specifically towards the professors sitting in the front, causing some of them to color a bit. Nonetheless, those like Professor Nxi who had been through many experiences in their lives took the renewed attention in stride.

This was because Ves was right. Every Senior went through at least one major setback, and often more.

\”This is the nature of our profession and the nature of the business environment we live in! The market for mechs is humongous and enormously lucrative! Yet all of the money circulating in our industry has brought out the highest degree of competitiveness of all of the existing players in the market! New entrants in the market such as you wonʼt fare well if you underestimate the competition and overestimate your own capabilities!\”

One particular student managed to summon up enough resistance to raise his hand!

\”Mr. Larkinson!\” The young man interrupted Ves. \”Why do you keep talking us down?! Do your earlier words about setting impossible goals mean nothing?!\”

Ves applauded at the man. \”Good question! I donʼt have the habit of contradicting myself! I mean what I say and my earlier lesson to you is still valid! While ambition is important to bring out the best in us, self-assessment is arguably even more important! The former deals with your aspirations of the future while the latter is relevant to what you can do in the present!\”

\”What do you mean, exactly?!\”

\”What a mech designer achieves in the future and what they are able to do in the present differs immensely.\” Ves spoke calmly. \”The challenge to each and every one of you is how well you can bridge this gap. No amount of wishful thinking will allow you to magically overcome the obstacles in the way. It takes an honest assessment of your options and capabilities as well as realistic decision-making to achieve significant progress. This is the quality that most mech designers lack when their startups falter.\”

The student who spoke up had sat down by now. He and everyone else followed his train of thought.

\”As the graphs behind me show, the commoners among you have just as much chance to succeed than the more fortunate sons and daughters among you. In my opinion, this is because of two reasons.\”

He raised one finger.

\”First, the independent mech designers with a common background are only able to attract investment because they set a bold vision and have the competence to back up their ambitions. They also know that they are good enough to compete over the less-fought niches in the market and go through with taking risks in the belief that their mech company can succeed!\”

He raised another finger.

\”Second, the independents among you with access to easy money and powerful backing frankly overestimate the role these advantages grant you! All the money and connections in Sentinel wonʼt help you sell more mechs if you suck! Forget your pride and birthright for a moment and make an honest assessment of yourselves! If you arenʼt ranking in the top of your classes, what makes you think you will make it past the stupendously high cut-off point of the brutal mech market where you are competing against mech designers who are vastly more competent than your classmates?!\”

The mech market wasnʼt fair! Huge trans-galactic enterprises headquartered in the galactic center regularly publish stupendously-optimized and nearly flawless mech designs that capture the bulk of the galactic mech market!

The smaller the mech designer, the less chances they had to survive on their own!

\”The true worth of a mech designer is locked within yourselves.\” Ves tapped the side of his head with his finger. \”Your design abilities are the basic foundation that determines your right to capture one of the crumbs of the pie.\”

Ves then swept his hand up in the air!

\”However, this is not enough! It is not enough to be decently good at designing mechs! You also have to present something of value to the mech market! This is where the ambition I spoke about earlier comes in! Maintaining a foothold in the market requires you to prove that your mechs are sufficiently different from the competition! If you fail to differentiate, then what gives you the right to capture the market share claimed by more established rivals? As long as they can do the same as you do but ten times better, there is no reason for your mech companies to exist!\”

Ves gestured towards one of the professors who spoke out earlier during the guest lecture.

\”One of your teachers mentioned that competing by price is a valid way of surviving in the mech market. But that is barely enough for you to maintain a meager and barely profitable existence. I donʼt think any of you with aspirants to become independent are okay with settling for a marginal existence! To grow your mech company and attract more sales, differentiation is the key. Only by releasing unique products that showcase your distinct specialties will you be able to get past the startup stage and become a major force in the market!\”

His words tied into the subject of ambition that Ves brought up earlier.

\”Boring ideas wonʼt cut it in the mech market. The mech market is already filled with mechs designed in the lines of almost every standard design philosophy out there. This is why it is important to be bold and ambitious in setting your goals! Only by developing a novel, exciting design philosophy will you be able to justify why you deserve a place in the market!\”

Competing over price was a dead end as far as Ves was concerned!

\”Of course, this is easier said than done. Some of you have the capability to do well, but not the ambition to guide your growth. Others have the ambition, but not the capability. If they failed to assess themselves honestly, they will just join one of the many failures projected onto this graph. As for those who possess neither the capability or the ambition, Iʼm sure they know themselves well enough that they have no place on the market.\”

This was why it was important for the students to reflect on themselves before they embarked on life-changing career decisions.

Ves could tell that his words had truly caught on by now! A lot more mech designers began to fall into thought as his lesson encouraged them to look at themselves.

Not everyone liked what they saw.