Note to new-age entrepreneurs: Why waiting for good ideas is
a bad idea
Isaac Asimov wrote hundreds of books. The exact number is something of a cosmic mystery. Most cataloguers of his work humbly mention their catalogue is not complete. The Good Doctor was as capable of writing a volume on "lecherous limericks" as a sober textbook on biochemistry.
Clearly, this was not a gentleman who suffered from writer's block. How did he do it? Fortunately, he wrote a poem to help us have a few good ideas of our own. Even better, it's not necessary to read the poem.
Asimov's title is enough: I Just Make Them Up, See. Just as writers sometimes get blocked waiting for a story idea, entrepreneurs can also get blocked waiting for a good venture idea. It seems logical.
First,
you have a good idea, then you start to implement it. So it's even
more logical to ask: where do great ideas come from? But a close look
at the data reveals three interesting facts: first, the ideas for
most enduring enterprises come from ordinary, humble deeds.
Second, such ideas are almost always due to the effort of multiple minds.
Third, the first idea entrepreneurs begin with is almost never the idea around which the business actually gets built. For example, Google was roughly the 65th search engine to enter the market.
Paypal thought they would "beam" money across Palm Pilots. The founders of Starbucks started out thinking they were in the business of selling coffee beans, and not the experience of drinking coffee.
IIn a landmark study of the most successful product ideas from a dozen different industries, MIT Professor Eric von Hippel found that these innovative ideas did not always come from conventional sources such as R&D departments or even from product manufacturers.
In fact, there were as many cases where inventions came from customers and users or from suppliers and others as from those actively trying to innovate. This is also true of entrepreneurs building enduring ventures.
Second, such ideas are almost always due to the effort of multiple minds.
Third, the first idea entrepreneurs begin with is almost never the idea around which the business actually gets built. For example, Google was roughly the 65th search engine to enter the market.
Paypal thought they would "beam" money across Palm Pilots. The founders of Starbucks started out thinking they were in the business of selling coffee beans, and not the experience of drinking coffee.
IIn a landmark study of the most successful product ideas from a dozen different industries, MIT Professor Eric von Hippel found that these innovative ideas did not always come from conventional sources such as R&D departments or even from product manufacturers.
In fact, there were as many cases where inventions came from customers and users or from suppliers and others as from those actively trying to innovate. This is also true of entrepreneurs building enduring ventures.
The
ideas they begin with and the ideas that the ventures eventually get
built around are not the same. There are two reasons for this. First,
it is very difficult, if not impossible, to know which ideas are
going to create the most value for the venture down the road.
In fact, if it is clear ahead of time that your idea is brilliant, chances are a lot of other people are trying to build very similar ventures. In other words, you might be entering a gold rush or a bubble of some kind where most entrants simply fail.
You don't need a brilliant idea. You need an idea where you can succeed by being yourself, not fail by being like everybody else. Second, even if you could come up with a brilliant idea, it is almost always impossible to implement such a brilliant idea on your own. So most likely you will spend a lot of time and money and effort trying to attract the resources and talent that you need to turn that idea into a viable venture.
Finally, no idea is intrinsically good or bad. It depends a lot on the context. When you think with actions, the context changes. New ideas pop up in unexpected ways from problems around you, from people around you, from possibilities you had not encountered before. So one of the most important lessons expert-entrepreneurs learn is not to wait for a brilliant idea.
In other words, don't spend a lot of time trying to find out if the idea will actually result in a highly successful company. Also, don't waste effort trying to convince other people that the idea is indeed brilliant.
Instead, get started with a list of actions that can quickly move you from idea to prototype to marketable product or service. Ideas by themselves are usually useless. The magic begins to happen when you begin acting on them. Consider things you already know how to do that people will pay money for.
Bill Gates did that. Transform hobbies into business models. That is how Pierre Omidyar built eBay. Turn games into operating systems. That is the story of Unix. Tom Stemberg lost his job when the company that owned the grocery store he was heading up sold his store to another company.
Partly angry and partly despondent in the days that followed, Stemberg was surprised to receive a call from his strongest competitor in the grocery business. The competitor wanted to fund Stemberg in any venture he chose to start. His reason: You were my best competitor in the business. I'd much rather have you as my partner.
Rather ploddingly, Stemberg began thinking about some kind of a specialty grocery chain. That weekend he began working on a business plan for his idea to show his competitor-turned investor. But he ran out of ribbon for his electronic typewriter.
As he tried frantically to buy some, he realized that most stationery stores were either closed for the weekend or did not carry the ribbon he needed. Instead of getting his business plan for the specialty grocery store completed, Stemberg decided to solve the problem that had defeated him that weekend. He went on to found Staples, the office supply store whose well-known tagline was "Yeah, we've got that!" Here's a surprising trick. Had a stupid idea? Great. Try it again.
Sometimes what's wrong with an idea is exactly the basis for the business model next time around. Learn from things that did not work out the first time and rebuild. Abhay Deshpande built Malamall in 1998 when ecommerce was considered novel and brilliant, especially to take Indian retail to NRIs online.
After the dotcom bust swallowed up Malamall, he started MartJack in 2006. The same team from Malamall came together in MartJack. Their idea? To leverage lessons learned through a failed ecommerce startup into successful ecommerce management for over 2500 retailers in India.
When you act, you don't just shake the tree of possibilities. You end up with a new tree. In fact you usually end up with a new you. Please note that I'm not asking you to copy Bill Gates, Pierre Omidyar, Tom Stemberg or Abhay Deshpande.
Another poem by Asimov called The Author's Ordeal brings home that point. It's about an author trying to write a story while doing ordinary things in the world. He's with his girlfriend, he's in his office, he's crossing the street, he's at a party.
Even if everything's an interruption his story gets done nonetheless as he goes about being himself. Building a venture by going about being yourself is the simplest action of all and perhaps the best idea in the world.
(The author is Isidore Horween Research Professor, The Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia.)
In fact, if it is clear ahead of time that your idea is brilliant, chances are a lot of other people are trying to build very similar ventures. In other words, you might be entering a gold rush or a bubble of some kind where most entrants simply fail.
You don't need a brilliant idea. You need an idea where you can succeed by being yourself, not fail by being like everybody else. Second, even if you could come up with a brilliant idea, it is almost always impossible to implement such a brilliant idea on your own. So most likely you will spend a lot of time and money and effort trying to attract the resources and talent that you need to turn that idea into a viable venture.
Finally, no idea is intrinsically good or bad. It depends a lot on the context. When you think with actions, the context changes. New ideas pop up in unexpected ways from problems around you, from people around you, from possibilities you had not encountered before. So one of the most important lessons expert-entrepreneurs learn is not to wait for a brilliant idea.
In other words, don't spend a lot of time trying to find out if the idea will actually result in a highly successful company. Also, don't waste effort trying to convince other people that the idea is indeed brilliant.
Instead, get started with a list of actions that can quickly move you from idea to prototype to marketable product or service. Ideas by themselves are usually useless. The magic begins to happen when you begin acting on them. Consider things you already know how to do that people will pay money for.
Bill Gates did that. Transform hobbies into business models. That is how Pierre Omidyar built eBay. Turn games into operating systems. That is the story of Unix. Tom Stemberg lost his job when the company that owned the grocery store he was heading up sold his store to another company.
Partly angry and partly despondent in the days that followed, Stemberg was surprised to receive a call from his strongest competitor in the grocery business. The competitor wanted to fund Stemberg in any venture he chose to start. His reason: You were my best competitor in the business. I'd much rather have you as my partner.
Rather ploddingly, Stemberg began thinking about some kind of a specialty grocery chain. That weekend he began working on a business plan for his idea to show his competitor-turned investor. But he ran out of ribbon for his electronic typewriter.
As he tried frantically to buy some, he realized that most stationery stores were either closed for the weekend or did not carry the ribbon he needed. Instead of getting his business plan for the specialty grocery store completed, Stemberg decided to solve the problem that had defeated him that weekend. He went on to found Staples, the office supply store whose well-known tagline was "Yeah, we've got that!" Here's a surprising trick. Had a stupid idea? Great. Try it again.
Sometimes what's wrong with an idea is exactly the basis for the business model next time around. Learn from things that did not work out the first time and rebuild. Abhay Deshpande built Malamall in 1998 when ecommerce was considered novel and brilliant, especially to take Indian retail to NRIs online.
After the dotcom bust swallowed up Malamall, he started MartJack in 2006. The same team from Malamall came together in MartJack. Their idea? To leverage lessons learned through a failed ecommerce startup into successful ecommerce management for over 2500 retailers in India.
When you act, you don't just shake the tree of possibilities. You end up with a new tree. In fact you usually end up with a new you. Please note that I'm not asking you to copy Bill Gates, Pierre Omidyar, Tom Stemberg or Abhay Deshpande.
Another poem by Asimov called The Author's Ordeal brings home that point. It's about an author trying to write a story while doing ordinary things in the world. He's with his girlfriend, he's in his office, he's crossing the street, he's at a party.
Even if everything's an interruption his story gets done nonetheless as he goes about being himself. Building a venture by going about being yourself is the simplest action of all and perhaps the best idea in the world.
(The author is Isidore Horween Research Professor, The Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia.)
By
Saras Sarasvathy CDET140912
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