There was a fantastic post by someone about the many waves of search engines, and how he thought he was too late each time, until finally Google came along and

There was a fantastic post by someone about the many waves of search engines, and how he thought he was too late each time, until finally Google came along and it really is too late ("...or is it?") [It was tremendously inspiring, but can't find it again. Maybe it was by the guy who founded tripod... anybody know?] Another point is that your way of doing it will be slightly different - in emphasis, in design, in features, in performance. It's even possible that an "defect" in your approach is actually benefit in some niche. So you are never in direct competition with anyone. It can be hard to accept not being the "best" or the one-and-only (for me, anyway), but if you're doing something that helps someone, something needed and/or wanted, then you're doing something worthwhile and valuable. And if you're doing something valuable, it's natural for some of that value to come to you. Personal experience: after I made the first prototype of my product, I discovered that several other people had the idea (it was kinda obvious), and had launched products. If I'd done the research first, I would have been discouraged, to some extent, and maybe wouldn't have started. As it happens, I totally killed in that market.