I would say a good idea is 5% of the equation

[eliquid]

That's a really good point! So...

If Xerox had the idea for GUIs, and ideas are worth more than execution, then why didn't Xerox make more money off of GUIs than Microsoft did?

Maybe Microsoft's idea for a GUI was better than Xerox's overall?

Ease of use comes to mind as one way MS's idea could have been better.

But now you are getting into a different debate.

First it was "new vs great"

Now it's "who makes more money, the original idea or the modified idea"

We havent even put Apple into the GUI deal yet. Apple and MS stole the idea from Xerox and put their own "twist/great" idea on top of it.

Who has more money? Who cares. Aren't MS and Apple worth a shit ton? Was Xerox a broke bankrupt company when the idea was taken, no.

Do we really need to compare bank accounts at the billions of dollars level?

In 1985 when Windows first came out, Xerox was doing 8,971 in Millions of revenues. Microsoft wasn't even on the Fortune 500 list. MS didn't even hit the list until 1995 when they did 4,649 in Millions of revenues. In 1995 Xerox did 17,837 in Millions of revenus.

Yeah, I think Xerox did pretty well during that time period after Windows came out and made more money than MS. A full 10 year run back then.

MS didnt even pass up Xerox in revenues until 2000. A 15 year window from the first Windows GUI. So original idea, when answering your specific question about bank account size, equals a win for Xerox and original idea. You can't say we all need to wait 10, 15, 99 years to see it play out.

But that's 15 years MS had to come up with other great ideas. Xerox dominated them in revenues until then. Those other great ideas, like I pointed out before, helped MS. it wasn't just MS-DOS or just Windows that did it. You missed out on all the other great ideas with your point of view.

Factoring in time twists everything around. If you want to wait 15+ or 30+ years for something, like the case for MS to catch up to Xerox based on your point about bank account size, then any argument could be valid. Lets wait another 200 years and see if Xerox catches up.

Sorry, Im not waiting potentially 15+ years to execute to see "who has the bigger bank account". I could die or become disabled in that time period. No thanks.

If we had this debate in 1985, or 1995, or even 2000.. you couldn't have made the statement. You got to have several decades to play out and have hindsight. Plus the benefit of all the other great ideas MS put into play too to make them a dominant player that you rolled up as just MS-DOS or my point about Windows.

It doesn't work that way in the real world though. You have only today.



.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

If anyone has read Unscripted , they know why the idea doesn't matter.

What does matter is dissecting the value array into its value attributes and then skewing 1 or 2 attributes.

Two, sometimes one skewed attribute is all one needs to start and succeed in business. No new ideas needed, other than the skewed attribute(s), which could range from better features, to better marketing, to better efficiencies.

Of course, one could argue too that those skewed attributes are ideas in themselves.

 

[DiemTrader]

Many people agree that execution is where it is at....

There seems to be a lot of ideas but not a lot of execution!

 

[snowbank]

love your blog billy

Thank you! Really appreciate how often you've shared it. Means a lot.

 

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[eliquid]

Yesterday I was looking through my daily notebook from 9 years ago to see if I had any unexecuted ideas I could work on and something I had written down 9 YEARS AGO has become a huge industry. It existed then but has since exploded like crazy.

I am working on other versions of it because it is something that will always be useful, but it's something that's harder to innovate now because of the sheer number of variations available.

The takeaway? Execute now and innovate because it will be harder later on.

Good point, but I label this not as execution.

I label it "you didn't strike when the iron was hot", or "you didn't make hay while the sun was shining".

I think your example is a tad different than execution.

A good idea, or good execution, is worthless if you miss the timing of your market.. no matter what. In a way, this falls back to your idea. Would it even be a good idea to jump into the market now? Was it really a good idea to jump into the market then?

Your idea has to take that into consideration.

At some point, not enough thought or research was put into the idea 9 years ago for you to have considered it a "great" idea. You must have though it was just an "OK" or "average" idea, which is why you didn't put time to execute on it back then.

When you hit on a great idea that has good market timing, you will execute. However, market timing is one consideration of if your idea is "great" or not.

.

 

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[eliquid]

Obviously the semantics of "idea" needs to be agreed upon before one can debate the veracity of the idea itself.

• I have an idea for a social network!
  ^^^ That's worth about .01%.
• I have an idea for a social network and here's how it would work, propagate, grow, and be funded! ^^^ That's worth a bit more.

Good interjection.

For me, it falls inline more with the second one..

I have an idea for a social network and here's how it would work, propagate, grow, and be funded!

Basically, all of the pieces are already in my head planned out and mapped out before any execution is done to put it into production that includes such items as what you brought up.

.

 

[Chromozone]

This was a really interesting read. Thank you everyone for contributing.

I personally see execution as a means to "discover" new territory.

The business I'm working on now started off with an important problem, but one I suspect a lot of people didn't think of as profitable. As a result I don't know anyone that has executed on it seriously.

However by executing on it I've discovered a bunch of hidden problems that are really compelling and could make the business very profitable quite soon.

In essence, it seems to me that instead of humans discovering new land/countries to conquer, we are now mostly fighting to discover new ideas. But, often these great ideas come out of incessant tinkering with an idea.

I enjoyed the discussion regarding Google earlier on re: page rank. It seems like a good example of what I'm trying to say. The founders were interested in search, they couldn't make search profitable and then they figured out page rank. But they couldn't have stumbled on the idea of page rank without executing on search.

I also think it's plain wrong to stick to an idea because it's "great". It means you don't allow yourself to discover and possibly stumble on something really important. I've seen a number of companies raise money and then blow up (in a bad way) because as soon as they raised money they had to stick to their so called "business plan" which doomed them to failure.

 

[Kak]

Sadly, this is the mindset I see from too many starry-eyed wannabe entrepreneurs. They think that if they come up with enough ideas, one of them will eventually "prove successful," and they'll make a lot of money.

They believe that the idea itself is the important thing, and if the money doesn't come rolling in, it must not be that good of an idea. So, they spend years coming up with idea after idea, heading down the road to implementing each of those ideas, and then giving up when they aren't overnight millionaires.

Sorry, it doesn't generally work that way...

Even if you have a great idea, the likelihood of you getting wealthy off of it is tiny. History is filled with people you've never heard of who have come up with great ideas but couldn't execute on them. Likewise, history is filled with people who have taken other people's ideas and have gotten insanely wealthy off of them because they did know how to execute.

Here's an example:

In 1980, Bill Gates purchased the first PC operating system from a guy named Tim Paterson (it was his idea) for $50,000. Bill Gates turned Tim's idea into a nearly trillion-dollar company.

Should Gates' have paid Paterson a trillion dollars for the idea? Nope, the idea wasn't worth a trillion dollars. The idea was worth about $50,000. It was the execution that was worth the trillion dollars...

Fantastic post.

Execution is what separates the men from the boys... It's also what pays.

I am wary by the "maybe one idea will prove successful" crowd. I wonder if they can stick with an idea long enough to uncover the true value that the market is looking for or if they move on to the next 30,000 foot view.

 

[Kak]

A great idea already knows the value the market is looking for. Also a great idea is the not the grandma pitch that your 30,000 foot view implies.

.

No one is all seeing and all knowing. This is impossible. I would have precisely 0 businesses right now if I stuck to the original plan every time.

Care to guess what brought me to those realizations? Execution.

I am part of 5 businesses that are the product of executing on good ideas that developed into better ideas.

 

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[ilrein]

@JScott care to clarify? Do you mean that execution of a mediocre idea is sufficient enough, as long as you persist -- just don't persist on something that has no chance of success/profitability?

 

[juan917]

I disagree.

A good idea to me is 95% and execution is 5%.

I could make a good debate for this. End the end, you do need both though.

However, with so many people touting VA's and outsourced help.... execution really isn't anything unless you have the good idea ( angle, UVP, etc )

A $5 an hour VA can execute for you. Executing on the wrong/bad idea will get you nowhere.

Notsure what a VA is but make your debate please but i think that statement is pure ignorance and is laughable.

 

[Maxjohan]

Great ideas are everywhere -- there are a million great ideas out there that are already generating trillions of dollars. Let me give you some examples:

- Fast food restaurants
- Pens (or any other common office supplies)
- Video game machines
- Automobiles
- Clothing lines
- Common food products
- Dry cleaning stores
- Dog food
- Box manufacturing
- Power tools
- Grocery store
- Music producer

Those are not ideas to me. Those are markets. Or industries. Read my post I posted in this thread. You can maybe learn something new. Guess you are more of a straight line thinker? It's okay. We are all different.

 

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[eliquid]

Google > Yahoo and all the other older search engines
Facebook > Myspace

There was no out executing done in those examples that made those companies what they are.

For one, several search engine companies were around. Google had a totally radical idea though of providing better results. It was called BackRub I believe. This is what set them apart from Yahoo and others, they were out executing in the garage on those throw away servers, it was the idea that got them a better service. Then they also perfected an advertising platform on top of it, something GoTo already had. It wasn't out executing, but a better idea which resulted in better results and more value to users.

For Facebook and Myspace, same thing. Facebook was a unique experience based on a unique idea on top of a social network. It was so good that someone stole it ( Zuckerburg ).

Saying, "oh there were other search engines, social media sites, automobiles,software companies, music producers, etc and then XYZ came in and out executed them" is not even the same comparison.

That's like me saying Uber out executed taxis and limos just because they showed up and did well. No, they had a better idea. Poor execution on that good idea is even profitable to an extent ( Lyft ).

 

[Andy Black]

I'll bet on the jockey - someone with a strong WHY and the ability to get stuff done... someone who isn't married to a particular idea or a particular way of executing, but will evolve both based on feedback... feedback that comes from actually executing on the idea.

 

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[jon.a]

Thats because better great ideas came along to replace them, like steel and aluminum.

You win. I don't need to be right.

 

[eliquid]

I should add 1 point of clarification to this message that might help others understand where I come from.

If you made it to the 2018 Fastlane Summit and saw my presentation, you will remember that I only play in my own sandbox of what I am an authority of.

All of my SaaS's where digital marketing related. I played pretty much in just that 1 space. I have 20+ years in that space.

Now that doesn't mean I don't venture out to other things, but 90% of my time and effort was concentrated in that 1 space.

At that level, I know all the other "if's" that go into what I call a great idea.. like @MJ DeMarco showed as an example with the "how it will be funded", "how it propagate", "how it will grow". I know these things if I am toying with a great idea in my authority space.

Some of these additional plans you just won't know if you are playing in a space that is unfamiliar territory for you. But to me, if you are in unfamiliar territory, that begs the question of if that's a great idea for you to be in that territory. Part of my presentation at the summit went over this and the whys behind it.

I'm not saying you shouldn't venture out. I am just pointing out my thoughts on it.

Right now I am venturing out into:

• Investing
  
• Machine Learning
• Publishing
  
• Real Estate

I'm not an expert/authority in any of those areas. Yet, I am getting into them.

However, the practice I have had for the 20+ years that I crafted good/great ideas ( within in my authority space ) has given me lessons I can reuse in new unfamiliar areas like what I am venturing into above.

Things like, catching an early trend.

Are you catching an early trend, or creating a whole new trend ( You don't really want to be creating a new trend )? Maybe you are at the end of the trend? Is your idea even applicable to a trend? Do you even know how to spot a trend. How do you know this is a trend and not a just a fad that will be gone in 12 months?

That's one example of what goes into a great idea for me ( potentially, I don't judge everything by trend-worthy-ness ).

Have you planned out the major obstacles that could happen in 12-24 months? Not just with the trend itself, but with things like CONTROL ( Amazon anyone? ) and the platforms you rely on. What's the exit plan? Did you plan for multiple income streams or just 1 ( like with standard ecommerce )?

I could go on and on.

@jcvlds touched on maybe calling this a strategy, more than an idea ( I think that is what he was getting at ). But to me, these things are fundamental to the idea. Maybe other people don't see it that way.

My idea for SERPWoo could have just been, "lets build a rank tracker". I think this is what most people consider the idea, the most top level abstraction possible. To me, the idea was actually:

• lets build a SERP monitoring application that allows people to research their true SERP competitors
• spot algo updates no one else finds
• allows ORM professionals an easier process for helping their clients with Online Reputation Management
• offers a different way ( that is more effective ) for SEO's to spot link building opportunities and judge how difficult a niche is BEFORE they build a site
• and allows someone to research back in time what their keywords SERPs looked like so they can actually tell if their online marketing is really working or if they simply moved up/down because someone else in the SERP got penalized above them

Add in some other things I haven't typed like market timing, competitors, funding, CENTS, etc.

This is idea generation for me.

I know I haven't still clearly defined it for some of you, but then again I never really thought I was going to be in a position to possibly have to. The idea to me is much more than the top level abstraction or what would be the "explain it to grandma" pitch.

.

 

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[Dami-B]

I remember having an idea about 3 years back.

It was a great idea.

I didn't properly execute and The business failed. I remember blaming the idea and moving to something else which was successful.

2 years back another company had the same idea, executed the hell out of it and just recently got funded with $1mill. Revenues... Great, profits... Fantastic.

Exact same idea.

Difference was execution! Ideas leave you with stories, execution leaves you with results. Talk is cheap!

 

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[SmittyMcdougal]

Mmmm bang bros

 

[Maxjohan]

Mmmm bang bros

Yup. Many have heard or visited their sites.

 

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[MakeItHappen]

go start a bad idea with great execution, and i'll start a good idea with 'meh' execution. you will lose badly.

100% agree about the importance of a great idea.


However if you have a great idea and poor exexution it is only a matter of time till an entrepreneur with great execution will copy and out-execute you.
Google > Yahoo and all the other older search engines
Facebook > Myspace

So you better make sure you have a damn good idea and damn good execution because you need both to succeed.

It's a waste of time to think and dicuss about what of the two is better. You need both a good idea and the capability to bring your idea to the marketplace.

btw @snowbank

Your first big business success the poker training site was a great idea (I was one of your first customers ) but there where a lot of other poker training sites years before yours.
Imo you just executed better (better poker pros for your training videos).

 

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[TTG SS]

I'm pretty sure in
the book @MJ DeMarco references a table that basically states the potential outcome of a legendary idea with legendary execution I.e Google, and then an average idea with legendary execution can still make you rich. I forget which chapter maybe someone can chime in on that.

I would say they both go hand in hand. If you have a bad idea of a product nobody wants you can execute everything perfectly and still fail. Meanwhile if you have an outstanding idea or product that people desperately want you can still make big money while executing poorly. (Think all those accidental entrepreneurs)

 

[JokerCrazyBeatz]

This thread is getting juicy

 

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[AllenCrawley]

This thread is getting juicy

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/process-online-review-business.65817/#post-526836

 

[Maxjohan]

You seem to imply that linear thinking is a negative. I know many successful business people (and some ultra-successful business people), and most of them are linear thinkers.

Dude. I wasn't sarcastic. Do you really think I don't believe sensors can get rich?? Bill Gates is a sensor. Don't believe anything else you hear about him being Intuitive. I'm 95% sure he is a sensor. Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. Both sensors too. I doubt any one of them came up with their ideas. Basically Apple bought patents to touch screen technology, what is now smartphones.

Why I said you could learn something new. Is because you were really off on how we who aren't thinking in straight lines. See ideas. We see them everywhere. Literally. While sensor may see our ideas as execution.

So maybe we should define what ideas are and what execution are. Before we get into any more debating.

 

[Maxjohan]

Interesting... Can you tell me more about Bill Gates and why I shouldn't believe anything I hear about him being "intuitive" versus "sensing"?

I try to get clues mostly from peoples voices. If a voice is more as you said. Linear. Not changing much in tone. Then I take them as a sensor. Otherwise. Intuitive.

Besides that, In the US 73.3 % of Sensors vs 26.7 % of INtuitives.

Here is a example of sensor. Gilbert Gottfried. Fifty shades of gray:

John Lennon, Intutive:

 

[Maxjohan]

I've worked with Bill Gates. I spent much of my career at Microsoft managing Media Center and ITV product lines. I've presented to him, been grilled by him, brainstormed with him, etc. On the Meyer-Briggs scale, I would rate him more "N" than any other business leader I've ever met, hands down.

You may want to re-calibrate your voice scale...

Btw, I've never met Elon Musk, but my wife spent much of her career at eBay/PayPal, and it was pretty universally agreed by those who worked with him that Musk was instrumental in conceiving of the PayPal product and strategy... So, you may be off on that one too.

Alright, you know your Bill Gates. I don't. It's okay. I may be wrong about him. But remember in the US 73.3 % are Sensors vs 26.7 % are Intuitives.

 

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[Maxjohan]

Also remember that 83.4% of all statistics are made up. And 92.8% of statistics are applied in the wrong context.

Yeah. I've heard that one before. But I believe those statistics of the statistics are made up too.

Seriously, I think we can end this debate now. Unless we define what is execution and what is ideas. Which will be completely different between us.

 

[Maxjohan]

Yeah. It's a little like arguing which one of two words are the most useful when they both mean the same thing. We just have different definitions.

 

[eliquid]

- Fast food restaurants
- Pens (or any other common office supplies)
- Video game machines
- Automobiles
- Clothing lines
- Common food products
- Dry cleaning stores
- Dog food
- Box manufacturing
- Power tools
- Grocery store
- Music producer

None of these are great or good ideas.

They're not even ideas to begin with

 

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[Dwight Schrute]

None of these are great or good ideas.

They're not even ideas to begin with

All of those are great ideas.
Or at least, they were at their time.
Each and everyone of them.

If they hadn't popped up in someone's head in the past, those niches/industries wouldn't exist.

 

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