Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James (AP Photo/Steve Marcus)

How could a mediocre basketball player beat LeBron James in a game of one on one basketball? By changing the rules of the game.

Imagine how ineffective the NBA All Star team would be if they were thrust onto a rugby field, with little knowledge of the game's strategy or rules. Even though professional basketball players are intelligent, skilled athletes, it is unlikely they would become accomplished rugby players before the match was over. As such, even a mediocre rugby team could defeat a group of NBA All Stars.

In the startup world, the Golden Rule is not, "Those who have the gold, make the rules." Rather, it is, "Those who make the rules, get the gold." As such, you will have far more success toppling larger rivals if you create a new game with an entirely new set of rules and force others to compete on your terms, not theirs.

Foiling Your Rivals

In the surfing world, the rules are being rewritten by foilboards (also called hydrofoil boards), in which the fin is replaced by a long blade which has small wings on either side. When the board gathers momentum, it rises out of the water, thereby significantly reducing the friction with the water, allowing for longer rides and greater maneuverability. If you had the misfortune to compete with Kelly Slater in a surfing contest, youd be wise to require him to surf on a foilboard, a kayak or a blowup mattress anything other than a standard surfboard.

Though foiling is not difficult for an experienced surfer to master, there is a learning curve associated with the new technology. Not surprisingly, most foil surfers are teenagers, just as most initial snowboarders were young people who were not wedded to conventional skiing. In the same way, startups are not steeped in the use of traditional solutions. This allows them to experiment and use emerging technologies to solve old problems in new ways.

Do Something Different, Not Better

When large companies encounter a new problem, they often attempt to solve it with brute force, deploying resources in ways that worked in the past. In contrast, startups must out-maneuver their larger rivals by changing the key parameters upon which competition has historically been based. Rather than trying to do the same thingsbetterthan their competitors, savvy entrepreneurs identify new ways to create and deliver value to their customers, which often result in sustainable competitive advantages.

Harvard Professor Michael Porter notes in, What Is Strategy? that entrepreneurs should strive to create a sustainable competitive advantage by performingdifferentactivities from rivals or performing similar activities indifferentways. (italics from original text). This is in contrast to the approach taken by most big companies, which often focuses on outperforming their rivals by executing thesameactivities.

When entering a new market, Richard Branson consistently changes the rules of the game in order to put his incumbent competitors at a disadvantage. According to Mr. Branson,You dont learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over. In a similar vein, he noted that "I've had great fun turning quite a lot of different industries on their head and making sure those industries will never be the same again

Olympic Lessons

Dick Fosbury began experimenting with unconventional methods of high jumping as a high school sophomore. His controversial, backwards technique was eventually dubbed the Fosbury Flop.

The track and field community initially scorned Mr. Fosburys approach, labeling it unsafe and too unorthodox for the average athlete to master. However, after setting an Olympic record at the 1968 Mexico City games, track athletes the world over began to co-opt Fosbury's approach. By the 1980 Olympics, the Flop was the international standard, used by all but three of the high jump finalists. By 1984, all of the Olympic finalists used Fosburys technique.

Fosbury is not alone in his role as an innovative Olympian. Although less renowned, David Berkoff revolutionized the world of swimming by dolphin-kicking underwater at the start of each race and after each flip turn, for as much as 35 meters at a time. He quickly went from being a mediocre collegiate swimmer to a world-class champion, winning four Olympic medals in 1988. Not surprisingly, given the medias love of alliteration, his technique was termed the Berkoff Blastoff.

Berkoffs initially impact was limited to his specialty, the backstroke. However, other competitors soon began utilizing his technique, which caused the International Amateur Swimming Federation to institute a rule precluding underwater swimming beyond 10-meters from the pool walls (later relaxed to 15-meters). The official reason given for this rule change was, the safety of the athletes.

However, most fans of competitive swimming agree that the real reason for the ruling was the officials concern that extensive use of the dolphin kick would migrate from backstroke races to breast and butterfly events. Thus, an otherwise non-competitive swimmer could conceivably defeat world-class champions by dolphin kicking the majority of the pools length. They also feared that competitive swimming would largely become an underwater affair, which would diminish the sports appeal to mainstream, television audiences.

If either Fosbury or Berkoff competed with modern athletes who had mastered their innovations, they would have no chance of winning. Looking back on his swimming legacy, Mr. Berkoff confessed,I probably wouldn't have made the Olympic team (without the Blastoff). I probably would have been a good back stroker but not a great one. It was something that really kind of changed the way backstroke was swum. However, because these athletes changed the rules of their respective sports, they became champions, while their competitors struggled to adapt to the new rules of the game.

Follow John on Twitter: @johngreathouse. You can also check out his hands-on startup advice blog HERE.

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Want To Beat LeBron James In A Pickup Basketball Game? Think Like A Startup - Forbes