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

[jcvlds]

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.
.

Precisely! You mention that all of these things you are thinking about are part of the idea generation process for you. You also mentioned above that what I am referring to as 'strategy' is fundamental to the idea.
Let's look at this way: Your idea is not a single, standalone thought. It is a collection of thoughts and ideas that work off of each other and, as a whole, make up a 'great idea'. This is very important because you don't just 'find/come up with a great idea'. People who wish they could just come up with that one great idea that would create their unicorn are not realizing that a great business idea is not one single idea but a collective strategy.


Let's use the great examples you gave to relate your idea generation process to a formal business strategy.

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:
.

My thinking is aligned with you on this. The idea is much more than the top level abstraction or the "explain it to grandma" pitch because you cannot do anything with the top level abstraction idea. It is not well-thought out and expanded yet. It is not a a complete strategy to why it will work and how you will make it happen. If you were to just have said "Let's build a rank tracker" and started cranking, you are working towards building a rank tracker but have no idea why, how it's valuable, or probably just copying another rank tracker in the market.

You need to think through other parts of the overall business strategy to think about how your business will find a fit and compete in the marketplace.

• 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.
.

I view your bullet points here as specific features of your solution that can be mapped directly to pain points or needs of your targeted customer. I am only familiar at a high-level in the digital marketing industry and I am unfamiliar with your specific circumstances and company (sorry, been active on this forum just recently), but I would be willing to bet that these features you listed were needs that customers were looking for and not getting delivered in a satisfying manner. Perhaps the existing tools catered to a more wider digital marketer audience, or perhaps the space was relatively new and so opportunities were abundant. Regardless, you saw an area where you could enter, play, and win. Your business strategy: 1) Where will I compete?: digital marketing space, SEO niche; 2) How will I win? I will differentiate myself from other players by addressing some key needs/pain points that no one else is addressing, or addressing poorly.

Then you thought of other ideas to support your main strategy. You lightly mentioned things like competitors, funding, CENTS, etc. Competitors I have explained a bit with the above on how competitors weren't addressing the needs you saw very well, or at all. Maybe they were good companies but focused on addressing other SEO needs so there was a gap. Competitive Analysis can typically fall under your Marketing Strategy umbrella because you use those findings to see where you will choose to focus on and be 'the best at' -- this supports your 'How will I win' broader strategy.

Some other areas that you didn't mention in your post but probably also thought about: marketing/sales channels (ads, calls/in-person sales, social media, word of mouth, referrals, etc). Again, all the decisions taken here should have a purpose and be helping your overall strategy.


What about Execution? It should go hand-in-hand with your strategy because without executing on the plan you won't validate the business or get feedback to refine it. You just gotta be doing both iteratively until you have a working and repeatable business operation.


I also wanted to mention that I think Execution is different than operational efficiency. The way I see it, execution is just taking the required actions needed to carry out the business plan/strategy. For your case, it was getting the tool created, talking to the customers to get their feedback, calling customers to offer them your tool, creating ads, w/e it is that you needed to do.

Operational efficiency on the other hand is what I think many commodity businesses end up competing on because they have chosen to, blindly or not, compete with a non-differentiated business. If there is nothing unique or special about you in the eyes of the customer, and you are just like many other competitors out there, ultimately they will pick the cheapest seller then. What does this mean for you? You have to compete on price, which means you are ultimately competing on operational efficiency with your competitors. The one who can create more with the least amount of resources (maximizing efficiency) will have the margin advantage.

 

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[jcvlds]

I credit 95% of my success in these businesses to being smarter than my competitors and executing more efficiently.

I really find this interesting and exciting. I have wondered a lot about how profitable businesses who compete on operational efficiency can be and the level of success they can achieve. Your story proves it can be very lucrative.

I think there is still a lot of opportunity in operating business models that are not novel, but still have plenty of demand, and just winning because you operate much more efficiently and effectively than your competitors.


Would you say you you could differentiate your business though? I think many industries and markets have become so saturated that differentiation is exhausted and so only form available is efficiency. But maybe there are more profitable niches within your RE business that are being overlooked.. the age demographics are shifting towards a larger group of senior folks. Maybe you could focus your RE on homes or centers for elderly folks? Is there something they value a lot that they would pay more for? Perhaps a wheelchair-friendly blueprint, things of that nature. Can a company in your industry become the go-to/best company for this niche? That niche may have less competition and higher profits.

I think these are just things we can think about to improve the positioning of your business in the market

 

[Argue]

Basically, idea = execution?

Example:

Tesla

• Idea of pure electric car

• Make plan/decision to disrupt market

• Create an excellent team and execute on a final product

• Sell final product to market

• Count the Benjamin's

• (Bonus: send car to outer space)

Fortnite

• Idea of PVP Battle Royale

• Disrupt market with freemium model

• Count the Benjamin’s

Augumented Reality

• Who will have the next best idea and execute well on that idea?

 

[Chromozone]

You have it backwards.

PageRank/BackRub came before the need for profit. PageRank actually came about back at Standford, way before they monetized it. So the discussion about PageRank earlier in this thread is actually misinformation. From Larry himself -

"In graduate school at Stanford University, I had about ten different ideas of things I wanted to do, and one of them was to look at the link structure of the web. My advisor, Terry Winograd, picked that one out and said, 'Well, that one seems like a really good idea.'
So I give him credit for that." -- Larry Page, [1]

That link structure he is talking about, was PageRank. See, it started as an idea first. One that was a "really good idea" from their advisor at Standford. This was way before they tried to monetize or even have Google.



Well, this is what happens when you take VC money. Not really because of the great idea.

.

My apologies.

In my example I was meant to say that the Google guys thought of AdWords as a result of executing search (not page rank - duh!!).

 

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[eliquid]

There is another avenue that I never saw discussed here... Executing your way to new adaptations of the original idea and putting yourself in position to notice, and seize new (even entirely new) opportunities ONLY comes from execution. You won't notice this sh*t if you aren't turning over rocks.

I actually touched on this in my post

If so, maybe you reach success executing better and agree to that point of view. You take a bad idea and execute on it, fail.. take another and fail, take another and fail, and at some point you have executed enough to know what not to do and turn those bad ideas into a good one that when you execute on it, it works.

Sure you have to execute and fail, over and over, to get to that point.

But what if you execute and fail and never get to that point? Not everyone that executes and fails, and gets back on the horse to try again finds something that works.

Do you try 5 times? 10 times? 999 times?

It's only when you failed enough to get/find the good enough idea that things change though.

Part of this might get touched on in my response to JScott. Not sure if it will or be clear enough.

.

 

[Roli]

When I was 14 I heard that most minor crashes happened while parking; separately I had watched a film about how they used lights to calibrate the distance to drop the bouncing bomb for - So I had an idea to place LED sensors into cars that would hook up to an audible alarm.

I did nothing and 10 years later (roughly) BMW brought out its prototype.


When I was about 28ish my friend filmed a funny video on his mobile phone, I saw this and realised that the craze would catch on once everyone had cameras on their phones (showing my age).

I had an idea to build a site whereby people could put videos on there.

I did nothing and about seven/eight years later Google bought Youtube for a ton , or rather 100 tonnes of money.


Now I have an idea that will revolutionise the entertainments industry.

This time, I'm doing something . . .

Idea without execution = 0%

Idea with execution = ???


I also have an idea for a revolutionary pet product, that takes an existing one and improves it a thousandfold.

I almost definitely am going to do nothing about that.

 

[eliquid]

I'm curious what an example of a good idea is in any of these areas?

I mean this with 100% sincerity -- I've made millions of dollars in each of these areas (they are three of my four primary business focuses) and yet I don't believe I've ever had an idea related to one of these areas that hadn't been utilized by thousands of people before me.

I credit 95% of my success in these businesses to being smarter than my competitors and executing more efficiently.

So I'm going to answer this post knowing that I also read your newer one too.

I'm thinking that the conflict here might be a couple of things. One of which is "new vs great" idea.

It doesn't have to be a new idea to be great.

If we take the Google example and PageRank, this idea wasn't new. It was just new when applied to the web. The idea was in play long before in how academic papers are weighted.

Also, citation analysis was first brought up in the 1950's by Eugene Garfield. Parts of the PageRank idea also cropped up in the 70's with Gabriel Pinski and Francis Narin, who worked on scientometrics ranking scientific journals, in 1977 by Thomas Saaty in his concept of Analytic Hierarchy Process which weighted alternative choices, and in 1995 by Bradley Love and Steven Sloman as a cognitive model for concepts, the centrality algorithm.

So this idea Google has, is actually not new. But is it still a great idea, yes.

Their idea was just modeled to the web.

Now this idea is applied everywhere online. The new twists have ended up how Amazon suggests related items to you. It also is partly how Netflix suggests movies you may like too. The idea itself is old, but it is still great.

When a newer car company comes into the market, is the assembly line a great idea.. yes.

Is it a new idea, no.

Can they come up with a new great idea though that could be better than the assembly line sometime in the future, yes. Will that make the assembly line a bad idea now, I don't know.

Does the great idea have to be your own? Technically no. However, I know in my prior post this might have been focused on more, since a lot of what I brought up in prior post were my personal experiences in which I used my own ideas.

Im sure @JScott, that you have seen a good RE idea and twisted it a little bit with your own way because you are smarter than your competitors and executing more efficiently, to make it a great idea. Maybe you don't consider it a great idea, but it probably is.

But just because it isn't new, doesn't mean it isn't great.

Maybe you have took a good idea and made it great with your own twist and don't realize it, yet.

.

 

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[jcvlds]

I'm already invested in some assisted living projects, so yes, that's certainly a shift I've made. But, there's nothing about assisted living or elderly care that is a new idea -- there are thousands of investors already successfully doing it (and have been for decades).

Long story short, I've yet to have an original idea in the real estate business. I've yet to have an original idea in the publishing business. I've yet to have an original idea with my angel investing, with my cryptocurrency investing, with my investing in racehorses, or any other investing I do.

Are there original ideas out there? Probably. But, in my industries, they're going to be few and far between. These are industries that have been around for decades...or for centuries. For me to have an original idea is unlikely, and every minute I focus on trying to come up with a great idea, I'm taking away time from focusing on having a great business.

You asked:

Would you say you you could differentiate your business though?

Yes, I differentiate my business through strong execution. I differentiate my business through branding.

Cool. I think if you are succeeding through strong execution, meaning you are carrying out the core functions of your business more effectively and consistently than your competitors, you should stick with it and keep out-performing the rest. What I view as the underlying factors beneath your strong execution is that you are carrying out your Marketing, Sales, Service, and Operations functions more effectively than your competitors, so you are able to compete and control a good piece of the pie (market share). Your competitor(s) might be lacking in their marketing capabilities (no top-notch visuals, graphics, sales content, brand personality, etc).. they might be lacking in their sales capabilities (they are able to get people to talk to them but they aren't able to close the sale).. they might be lacking in their customer service (take forever to respond to questions, or carry out a deal).. they may be lacking in their operations (lacking personnel, no efficient procedures, etc). So you beat them if one or several or all these areas and you are winning for your strong execution.

But, I haven't yet figured out a way to differentiate my current businesses through novel ideas.

I think differentiating doesn't occur solely from novel ideas. Differentiation comes from the way you market yourself and the perceived value that customers see. What is a novel idea anyways? Most of the time, I hear people throw Facebook, Uber, and all these new unicorns. I don't like talking about these examples/companies but I think I make a point that perhaps could help your business. What is a truly 'novel' idea? Social networks were already around when FB started, but FB targeted a pretty small audience first, Harvard students, and made some changes to his social network that now made it super interesting/cool/valuable for the students there. He differentiated his social network by adapting it, catering just for Harvard students.. initially.. then expanded.

Differentiation at the end of the day is just setting yourself apart, in customers' eyes, from other competitors, so that a good amount of them that are looking specifically for the areas you highlight in your positioning will make you their #1 choice.

That said, if you have any great ideas that would allow me to do that, I'd love to hear them!

As for ideas to differentiate your business, although I'd love to help, I am not that entrenched into your space so can't have a concrete way for you to differentiate. But I think there could certainly be areas you could brainstorm about to help you look for ways to differentiate.

- Can you look for customer segments that are looking for a more targeted solution and would potentially pay more for if their specific needs were addressed? (you mentioned assisted living.. there could be others)

- these could be small niches (although could be more profitable) but, if analyzed well, could reveal the niche is set to grow in the next 10 years and if you dominate it now you will be a leader with the growth​

- Is there a component of your business functions which matters exponentially more to your customers?

- Maybe in your industry Customer Service really sucks.. or maybe its customer-self-service. In this example, you could identify that a deep complaint from customers about all competitors (including you) is that they want to their account-self-service online in a portal but none of you offer that, or maybe do but it sucks. You could greatly improve this area, then position yourself as having the best self-service portal that greatly reduces their time to do X.. so you differentiated yourself from the rest that lack in this area. This example may not apply, but I think the concept to grasp is to look at your entire customer's journey and experience with you (pre, during, and post purchase) and see which areas matter a lot and bring exponential value to customers, which you can act on and then use as a differentiating factor/competitive advantage.​

- Complements?

- What are some things associated with your product/service that when customers deal with you, they usually also look into or buy? Classic example for RE would be loans, inspections, etc.. but you know your industry better so maybe you can find something that you can offer which complements your initial offer and makes it more valuable.​

If I think of others I'll post em. It may not be a very concrete way.. but I think that asking questions around those areas and thinking about that stuff can get you looking into avenues for differentiation that could actually work in your business, and then hopefully find the one that proves successful

 

[eliquid]

For me to have an original idea is unlikely, and every minute I focus on trying to come up with a great idea, I'm taking away time from focusing on having a great business.

This is one reason my other post talked about strengths and how we are all different.

In reading this line, it came across to me that you feel that you have to "focus on trying to come up with a great idea".

I don't look at it like that, or experience it, in that way.

Great ideas come to me without trying, and I don't feel like Im taking away time from my business when it happens.

Why?

Right before I go to bed, I tend to get ideas forming.

When I take dump, I tend to get ideas forming.

Taking a shower, I get some ideas forming.

When I am talking to other people about like minded things, I get some ideas forming.

As I am driving my car, alone sometimes, and have a bit of distance to drive.. ideas start to form.

Sometimes these ideas form or connect to older ideas I had already.

In none of these interactions am I actually trying or focusing on idea generation. In none of them am I really taking away from my business either.

This is why I posted the earlier post on strengths. This is just something that is "just me" and how I am. Some people this happens to, others it doesn't.

In many ways this is a curse. I won't go into that here, but it isn't all rosey and great. For those of you that are like me reading this, you know what I mean.

A great idea should come naturally to you, based on your experience. When the time is right, it will come. Maybe you get only 1 or 2 in your life.

All of mine have just came to me, normally at a time I don't have a pen or paper handy. I wasn't trying to bring it to be.

.

 

[jcvlds]

I'm thinking that the conflict here might be a couple of things. One of which is "new vs great" idea.

It doesn't have to be a new idea to be great.

If we take the Google example and PageRank, this idea wasn't new. It was just new when applied to the web. The idea was in play long before in how academic papers are weighted.

I like this. I think I touched on the same with my above post.

In my mind, it's the same for Uber. When people say, "I wish I could have come up with Uber.. what a great idea!" I don't think they are seeing past the most abstract top-level idea that is 'Uber'.

Uber was not a single idea. Nor was it a brand new idea. It was a set of ideas, taken from different areas, and applied to solve one major pain point. What's the biggest pain point? Ordering a taxi easily and quickly that will arrive soon. They took several ideas that already existed in the market and applied it towards solving this problem. Smartphones, apps, online purchasing already existed. GPS and tracking services already existed. It had just not been targeted towards the specific issue in the taxi industry.

 

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[eliquid]

But, if it's not a new idea, how is it possible to make money off of it?

Who said it needed to be a new idea, to generate money off of it?

 

[jcvlds]

But, if it's not a new idea, how is it possible to make money off of it?

I think the context in which the idea is applied matters. It may not be a new idea in the world, but it may be a new idea/or a way that idea is implemented for a specific problem/market/niche/customer/etc

 

[eliquid]

Nobody. My question was *HOW* you make money off of an old idea?

You have to play to your strengths.

If you have no great idea in your market and you want to continue with that market, you have to do like everyone else for the most part. Does that mean 100% exactly, no.. but for the most part you do in general.

If you're not a great idea person, you have to compete in the same ways that are available to your competitors like price or efficiency, to name a couple.

If an old idea is great, you can make money. But you're largely doing what everyone else can do OR has available to do if they want.

Like with my assembly line post, or even the McDonalds one.. Burger King and Toyota are using the old idea ( which is still great ) so they are having to do like their competitors in their markets who have the same resource.

What's left? Things everyone else will have available to them like price, improvement of efficiencies, etc.

Where do you differentiate yourself now? With a different great idea like:

Reliability - Toyota
Flamed Broiled - Burger King ( Im not saying this is a great idea, but it is what sets them apart )

I can probably think of some better ones, but Im not wanting to spend all day on this. I haven't sat around to think about what makes Burger King great. Just using this as an example.

You can make money in tired old ideas, but I'd rather have an advantage that outlasts me being the "key" to the business such as being the smartest one among my competitors.

.

 

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[jcvlds]

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...

I agree. Can't fully tell if you are inferring that what I am saying is to do that: come up with a ton of ideas and one will make you an instant millionaire. That is not at all what I am saying. I don't think I've even said anything close to that. Just wanted to clarify.

As for your scenario, you already have an existing business that does well and competes in the market. The process of thinking for ideas to improve your offering and value to customers will come from thinking in ways to differentiate, try, test, and refine. It does not mean you are putting your entire business to stop to look for a novel idea. You are still operating. You just allocate resources, time, and effort into finding ways to differentiate.

 

[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.

 

[eliquid]

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...

There is a lot of apples to orange comparisons here ( comparing this post to the whole thread ) like:

starry-eyed wannabe entrepreneurs - a great idea, or great execution won't help this crowd. Come on, you know this. These people won't execute anyways, and they wont have a great idea. Moot point. They are "starry-eyed" and wannabe to begin with. Execution wont help them either.

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. - basing success of the sheer number of ideas is folly to anyone that thinks it. This is the same with, "if I just launch 20 books" or "if I just launch 20 affiliate PPC campaigns" that one of them will work. All 20 could be shit. Only the "great" book or "great" PPC campaign will be blockbuster. The average ones can make money, but only the great ones skyrocket. It's not the number of ideas generated, it "which ones are great" or to a lesser extent, "which ones are good enough".

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 - You should only be working on the great ideas, not all the ideas. Part of my presentation at the 2018 Fastlane Summit touched on this actually. I can come up with 100 ideas a day. Maybe only 1 every 3-4 months is "good" or "great" though. I wouldn't expect people to execute on the ones not good or great though.

and then giving up when they aren't overnight millionaires. - If you think you can become this, great execution won't save you either, right? Not sure why you mentioned this because it wont work in your example either.

All in all, I know what you are getting at JScott. We both know these people exist.

However, we both know people exist as well that took a old idea... executed on it.. and lost their shirt.

Do I have to point to all the authors on Amazon who have pumped out 20+ books and are still broke do I?

What about the housing market with all those RE builders and flippers that went under?

Let's exclude the housing boom and just settle on people who built houses outside of the bubble that also never did well? I know at least 3 people that built several homes each in my area that ended up bankrupt.

They executed enough to put out the books, the ecom products ( Amazon ), the houses or invested in the stock market time and time again.. but ended up broke and back at the job. Execution didn't help them.

Working hard and executing doesn't equal success. If that was the case, all these good workers that report to their day jobs would all be CEOs and rich, right? Or all these Amazon authors and ecommerce guys would be living the dream after pushing their 10th book or garlic press, right?

We can all find examples on both sides.

.

 

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[jcvlds]

What have I said that leads you to believe that my advantage in execution is related to Marketing, Sales, Service or Operations?

What other areas can a business execute on? The other areas like Technology/Information systems, HR/Talent, Procurement, etc.. I didn't mention because I think those tend to be more support/back-end.

 

[eliquid]

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.

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.

.

 

[eliquid]

Basically, what I took from that post is:

The best way to make money on a non-novel idea is to have great execution.

We agree. I would extend that include novel ideas as well -- without great execution, even novel ideas are worth very little.

If that's what you took, that's what you took.

However, that was not what I said or meant or wrote.

 

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[eliquid]

I agree. I think my previous example about Bill Gates and Tim Paterson was a perfect example...

Tim's idea (not just a "grandma pitch," but an actual implementation of the idea) was worth $50,000. Bill's execution of the idea was worth nearly $1T.

Even had Tim tried executing, it's unlikely he would have ended up with a company like Microsoft, despite the fact that he started with the same idea.

Ideas are worth far, far less than the execution...

I think a better view is this:

All Tim did was mimic someone else, a great idea taken from IBM. He then sold that to Gates.

This isn't what made Gates rich though, execution on MS-DOS. Gates had other great ideas folded into Tim's

There were other great ideas like:

• Windows ( A GUI ) - taken from another great idea originated from Xerox.
• Licensing deals with manufacturers locked in for X years.
• Software like Office or even just enterprise stuff like Outlook for business.

Gates could have just executed on MS-DOS and got to X point. Which is the point you brought up. Bill executing on Tims idea.

It's actually the other great ideas that got Bill much further along, not Tims.

Microsoft would be nowhere near it is now without the other great ideas I mentioned above.

.

 

[eliquid]

I'll throw out one more tidbit here...

I do some angel investing in the technology space. I can't tell you the number of times that I've been pitched an idea where my reaction was, "Wow, what a great idea!" but then I chose not to make an investment.

If I invested in every company that had a great idea, I'd be broke.

The question would be, do you know what puts the "great" in a great idea though?

Just like your example from before of all the wannabe business people and their ideas. I am sure they thought their ideas were great too, but in reality they were not.. more than likely.

If it was truly a great idea, like you said you felt, you would have invested though, right?

Clearly those were not really great ideas. Just because someone comes up to you and says it is ( via their pitch ), doesn't mean it is. You decided it wasn't since you didn't "vote with your money".

You used your internal judgment to decide it wasn't, which is why you didn't invest... so it must have not been a great idea after all.

But the ones you do feel are great ideas, you invest in right? Clearly from your talks about what you invest in Crypto shows this. You invested in those great ideas.

I thought ideas didn't make much money?

Clearly some great ideas got money from you.. correct? Your crypto portfolio where you invested on ideas shows that, since they are very very early investments. These same ideas also got A LOT OF MONEY from others too, besides yourself.

Some of the newest richest people are coming from the space you invest in that are a little more than ideas when you first invest in them. Most times these teams haven't really produced something yet. Matter of fact, you are sometimes stuck holding on to those ideas even if the team doesn't produce something for months because your coins are not available to you to trade/sell yet.

Lets remove you personally from the equation though on the topic of crypto. Would you call the money these companies are generating "little"? Because a lot of people are pouring lots of money into coins that are many times just an idea or whitepaper.

A lot of investments are like this. An idea that they will go up or down, a prediction of growth or loss. That idea generates a lot of money exchange. I'll admit some people invest in the markets for other reasons, but the one I point out is a factor for many.

I'd say you agree with me more than you think based on that.

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[GPM]

I firmly believe that on average a person only rises as far as they can lead. Leadership is, in my experience, the most important part of business.

This is Gold. Ever heard of a little fella' named Andrew Carnegie? He was a leader, who got the best in the world to work for him, and love working for him, all because he was a great leader.

In today's dollars he would be worth a little over $370 BILLION.

Anyone can be good at what they do, or know more information that someone else about a given topic, all that takes is research. Being able to harness those people and bring their skills towards a common goal - those are the people who shake the planet and change the course of humanity.

 

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[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.



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[SteveO]

In all reality it depends on the business you are in and how you execute. Some have great ideas but can't get them off the ground. Others have plain old vanilla ventures that are all over the place but carry out an excellent implementation of a process.

@JScott and @eliquid are brilliant individuals. Both are correct and I can easily live with that.

 

[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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[eliquid]

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.

No one said anything about all seeing and all knowing. I also never said you had to stick to any original plans you made. Those are not anything I have said.

If you have experience in your space, you know what value the market wants. If you don't there are ways of finding out.

In the end, you said you were part of 5 business that had a good idea. Lets see you run that with a poor idea and how you would end up.

No matter how many times you execute and pivot, you have to have that good idea before the magic happens. Executing on poor ideas that never turn good ( or great ) ends you up on broke street.

In the end, you gotta have the good idea.

In the end, no one has showed me in this thread ungodly execution on a poor idea that has made them successful. Those that have tried, end up back at their poor idea turned into a good one though.

However, everything everyone has tried to point out has been execution on a good or great idea and then success came.

What's the difference in the 2 examples above? The idea.

It's not hard to spot folks.

If you want to execute on poor ideas, thinking that WILL GET YOU to a good or great idea, or just success while sticking to the poor idea.. be my guest. But this sounds a lot like just working in a cubicle under an employer the rest of my life.

I don't have 15+ years to waste pivoting on bad ideas hoping they turn good/great. You can't tell me that execution on a poor idea will END YOU UP at a good idea. There is no forecast for it.

In the end, execution HAS TO HAVE a good or great idea behind it to be successful. Every example in this thread has pointed to it. I haven't seen one post someone has made where execution + poor execution = success. Advantage seems to be with the idea.

The great idea at a min can have very little execution behind it ( as in patents or licensing ). Or it can have outsourced execution ( as I mentioned before in taking it off my plate ). In this way also, the great idea has an advantage.

When the idea is good, it doesn't need a lot of work to get it off the ground. A poor idea takes forever to get off the ground and even more time to get "good".

This is why I firmly put ideas above execution.





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[eliquid]

Why didn't you ask???

I started flipping houses in the worst-hit market in the country while the housing market was still trending downward (and would for another two years in my market). In retrospect, flipping houses at that time and place was a HORRENDOUS IDEA. Not a great idea. Not a good idea. Not an average idea. But, a horrendous idea.

Probably safe to say that I now know as much as anyone on the planet about flipping houses, and in retrospect, I'd tell my 2008 self that I really shouldn't have been doing what I was doing. I'd probably lock my 2008 self in a closet for two years to force myself to not be flipping houses back then.

While we were executing on that horrendous idea, lots of other investors around us were doing the same thing, and losing their shirts. They were trying to execute on the EXACT SAME (horrendous) IDEA. And they were failing.

And yet we made a lot of money doing it. Why? I mostly chalk it up to great execution...

Ok.

I'll have to be honest though and say that it sounds like possibly you are using "execution" as a general blanket statement here for 1 or more great ideas not being told here.

I mean, there has to be something within that execution that was a great idea to have pulled you through.

The great idea isn't always the 30,000 ft view grandma pitch, which you agreed with earlier. But your example of flipping homes in the recession ( or flipping homes in a great economy ) is still pretty much a 30,000 ft view grandma pitch.

Whats the rest of the story?

Just like Microsoft isn't MS-DOS or Windows alone and Burger King isn't just a restaurant alone ( both examples we have talked about before in the thread ), what is the rest of the "decisions" you made that could have been great ( or just good ) ideas?

Flipping homes ( or flipping homes in good/bad time ) is too high level.

I know you mentioned you recently ( I think ) got into assisted living homes. To me that is a good idea but still a bit high-level potentially. But I think its a good idea because:

1. People get old, it's a trend not going away
2. People hate those other "old folks nursing homes" currently
3. If there are not many in your area ( I have no clue ), you could be fast/first mover
4. If there are a lots in the area, you could set yourself up many ways ( discount, luxury, fitness, etc )

I don't know much about that market, so don't take what I listed as examples of what I really feel are great ideas. I listed them as an example purely. I feel that a great idea comes from experience in a domain, not in uncharted territory. This is still that for me. If I were a bit more experiences in this realm of RE, I could maybe list a few better ones, but I don't know the market you are in specifically.

It's the small things like this I ( could potentially ) say are all the good ideas you are not uncovering with the general blanket of "execution" you use that have helped you get to where you are now.

But it's disguised potentially as just "execution" in your view point. In mine, it could be one of multiple good ideas ( again it doesn't have to be unique or new ) or great ideas, that you just fold into execution.

Tell us more @JScott ( when you have time, Im about to call it a night honestly ).

.

 

[jcvlds]

But your example of flipping homes in the recession ( or flipping homes in a great economy ) is still pretty much a 30,000 ft view grandma pitch.

Whats the rest of the story?
.

I too think there is something hidden in the details, whether you were aware of it or not, that allowed you to continue making profits while others were not. Prices, in general, might have been falling due to the crisis, but perhaps you found a certain sector of RE where prices were not falling.. a specific customer segment may have had strong demand and you stuck to that sector or moved to it. While all other flippers were playing the broader RE flipping, not in a focused sector where demand was not falling, they flipped houses that could not be resold for a profit because demand was disappearing. They might have not seen the hidden sectors where profits could still be made, and they went bankrupt.

Again, I am not in this market so this example may not be exactly what happened in your case.. but there has to be something along those lines that made you succeed when others weren't. Your execution was applied towards a good and profitable strategy, not a bad idea/strategy that is destined to lose because the underlying business economic factors are bad, like your competitors. They could have been executing just as diligently as you were, but the execution was directed towards a flawed business idea.

 

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[biophase]

Just wanted to jump in here... I am on the side that execution and business intelligence trumps ideas.

Let's say I wanted to start a burger restaurant. Not exactly a new great idea. But make the food good, put it in a good location, provide great customer service and value and you've got a business that's probably making money.

From an ecommerce standpoint, since I have experience in it, I believe that I can launch a store in almost any niche and make it profitable. Again, it's not about the product. It's about your store design, it's social presence, how you get traffic, etc...

I'm sure other people had the idea of digging tunnels underground and driving cars through them before Elon Musk did. But others probably didn't have the means or the knowledge to start a company of that magnitude.

A long time ago someone mentioned to me that it would be cool to make cell phones charge wirelessly. Yes it would be, he had no knowledge of electronics or physics. What good was his idea? He had no idea if it was even technologically feasible. I bet he probably goes around telling people about his idea that Android or Apple stole from him.

 

[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.