Why Ideas Suck
The naysayers have gotten to me.
But, they actually miss the entire reason why that’s the case.
Mark Cuban on the other hand, gets it. He recently wrote a blog post titled Success and Motivation: Drowning in Opportunity / Winning the Battles You Are In.
He’s listed 3 rules he uses when starting a new business or looking to expand an existing one. Rule #3 is the critical discussion point: You Can Drown in Opportunity.
Every entrepreneur’s mind goes crazy with the new and exciting things they can do beyond the new and exciting things they are already doing. The risk is that you can drown in all these opportunities. Far too often when an entreprenuer hits a rough patch or competitive challenge, the temptation is too “turn on the thinking cap” and find something new for the company to do.
He’s 100% right. And that’s why ideas suck. There are simply too many of them.
Of course recently I praised the long tail of ideas, where I argued that an idea’s value wasn’t just its own results but in the million other ideas spawned from it, which could be bigger in return than the original idea.
So which is it? Do ideas suck or are they the key to business success?
Both.
Let’s go back to what Mark Cuban says:
As an entreprenuer you have to know what the core competencies of your business are and make sure that your company focuses on being the absolutely best it can be at executing them. Bottom line is this. If you are adding new things when your core businesses are struggling rather than facing the challenge, you are either running away or giving up.
Under these circumstances generating infinite ideas and chasing them like a rabid dog in a room full of chew toys will lead to failure. It’ll be impossible to focus on what you should be doing best, and you’ll spread yourself too thin.
Of course, if what you do best changes as a result of generating an idea, or your core competencies are being managed well and you’re looking to expand…well…ideas are the goldmine of success. Without new ideas (spawned from existing ones or not) you’ll never grow. A business can’t grow without new ideas.
Tags: b5biz, business-success, Entrepreneurship, ideas, mark-cuban, peanut-butter-manifesto, startupPOSTED IN: Entrepreneurship, Starting a Business
5 opinions for Why Ideas Suck
Carolyn Manning
Dec 18, 2006 at 6:34 am
Point well made, Ben, although often confused. The anxiety that comes with a rough patch is no place to spawn new ideas; that’s where old ideas are re-combed and tweaked. Good new ideas have a natural flow and enhance, rather than change, the core, assuming the core has a solid base.
Ben Yoskovitz
Dec 19, 2006 at 8:43 am
Right on the money Carolyn. Thanks for the comment!
startupspark.com - Carnival of Entrepreneurs Round 2
Dec 22, 2006 at 9:54 am
[…] David Maister recognizes the pitfalls with constantly changing your mind and provides some great advice and experience on how to stay focused, make better decisions and be more successful. David hits on a theme near and dear to my heart which I talked about in Why Ideas Suck. […]
Matt
Dec 23, 2006 at 6:24 am
This is a good point. As I slowly develop my business I see how persistence is just as important as creativity.
The way I look at it is: try a few different things for a while. Keep doing the things that work, and drop those that don’t. Don’t hang on to a concept that isn’t working no matter how fond of it you are. After a while you’ll have a small but constant income from those sources.
Ben Yoskovitz
Dec 23, 2006 at 8:04 am
Matt - you’re right that you need to know when it’s time to drop something. But that can be tough; you might want to try and fix something or tweak it first, and people are extremely attached to their ideas. There’s no absolutes when it comes to deciding what’s right, when an idea has been taken as far as it can go, etc.
Thanks for commenting!
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