20/04/2026
Short Story for SME/Entreprenuer
In 2010, British millionaire James Heselden bought Segway Inc. Within 12 months, a Segway sent him over an 80-foot cliff to his death.
Segway was supposed to change how humans moved forever.
Dean Kamen spent years developing the self-balancing technology in secret.
Steve Jobs saw an early prototype and declared it would be bigger than the PC.
Jeff Bezos invested millions before the public even knew it existed.
The hype machine went into overdrive.
Media outlets speculated about a device that would make cars obsolete.
Cities would redesign themselves around this new form of transportation.
Walking would become a thing of the past.
December 2001: The Segway Personal Transporter launches.
Price tag: $5,000.
The world collectively shrugs.
The "transportation revolution" looks like an expensive toy for mall cops.
Sales projections called for 50,000 units per month within 18 months.
Reality: 30,000 units sold in six years.
The disconnect was staggering.
But here's what everyone missed.
Segway Inc. didn't fail because the technology was bad.
The self-balancing system worked perfectly.
The engineering was brilliant.
The product delivered exactly what it promised.
They failed because they tried to solve a problem nobody had.
Walking wasn't broken.
People didn't need a $5,000 solution to move short distances.
The market they imagined simply didn't exist.
Then something interesting happened.
While consumer sales flopped, security companies started buying.
Police departments placed orders.
Tour operators saw potential.
Warehouses needed them.
The real market wasn't consumers wanting to replace walking.
It was businesses needing efficient mobility for specific tasks.
But Segway Inc. kept chasing the consumer dream.
They created smaller models.
They lowered prices.
They marketed to commuters.
They partnered with cities.
Nothing worked because they refused to accept reality.
Their actual customers were right there, waving money.
Security firms wanted bulk orders.
Tourism companies needed fleets.
Industrial facilities required mobility solutions.
Instead of serving these real customers, Segway kept believing their own hype.
2015: Chinese company Ninebot acquires Segway Inc.
They immediately pivot to what works.
Electric scooters for urban mobility.
Delivery robots for logistics.
Industrial transport solutions.
The technology finally found its real market.
Ninebot understood what Segway Inc. never accepted.
☆ You can't force people to want what you're selling.
☆ You have to sell what people already want to buy.
The original Segway vision was never wrong.
Personal transportation will evolve.
Cities will adapt to new mobility.
But it won't happen through expensive two-wheeled platforms.
It happens through shared scooters.
Through e-bikes.
☆ Through solutions that fit existing behavior.
Not ones that require behavior change.
Here's what kills most businesses.
☆ They fall in love with their solution instead of the problem.
☆ They build for imaginary customers instead of real ones.
☆ They ignore actual buyers while chasing fantasy markets.
Segway Inc. had paying customers begging for products.
They just weren't the customers Dean Kamen dreamed about.
So they ignored them.
And lost everything.
Your business probably has its own version of this problem.
The customers you want versus the customers you have.
The market you imagine versus the market that exists.
The vision in your head versus the reality of revenue.
Stop trying to create markets that don't exist.
Start serving the customers already trying to pay you.
Because the graveyard of failed companies is full of visionaries who refused to see reality.
Think Big
(Credit to Writer - Unknown, PC - Wiki)
