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

[jon.a]

Because in your scenario there is no way for a great idea to spring forth, which is the part of the topic of this thread.

If the environment is highly controlled and regulated where everything is forced same, you have no great idea/UVP

Maybe so, I only read the OP. Not the 4 pages between then and now.
Oh and great ideas happen all the time. We retired wooden ships and canvas aircraft some time ago.

 

[eliquid]

Outsourcing isn't a new idea. In fact, it's not an idea at all. It's execution.

You're reinforcing my point with this comment...

Its a great idea ( remember, I never said it needed to be new ) if your competitors aren't doing it

Thousands of companies expand. That's not an idea. It's execution.

Again, reinforcing my point.

Its a great idea ( remember, I never said it needed to be new ) if your competitors aren't doing it. Lets all open up Burger Kings in China and get a foothold before Arbys!

12-year head start with the same idea? So, what happened in that 12 years? Oh yes...they executed. If only the idea mattered, a headstart would be meaningless...

Again, reinforcing my point.

Its an advantage. If I poorly execute on a great idea for 12 years, Im sure I will be farther down the road than you with your well executed poor idea on your first day. That 12 year advantage is big. You cant dismiss it.

Merger...is that a new idea? A UVP? Nope, it's execution.

Again, reinforcing my point.

Its a great idea ( remember, I never said it needed to be new ) if your competitors aren't doing it. Sure, combing my companies talents and resources with another companies resources and talent when my competitors aren't isnt a great idea for an advantage. Laughable!

Spending money??? Is that a UVP? Or is that execution? Pretty sure it's execution.

No it's a great idea. Lets outspend Arbys in these regions and keep our UVP in the customers head daily to win more sales and create a personalty to go with it. A poor idea might be to not do advertising at all and just execute on making more roast beef.

Wait, nobody flame grilled a hamburger before Burger King? They invented the idea of cooking meat over an open flame?

I don't think so. They just did it better than anyone else on a large scale...in other word, execution,.

Its a great idea ( remember, I never said it needed to be new ) if your competitors aren't doing it. Burger King was the first to push it mainstream as flamed broiled. They used it for years, why? because it worked and provided them a UVP. It was a great marketing idea.

Basically, it sounds like you completely agree with me, but either have skewed definitions than most other people (very possibly) or just don't want to admit it. Either way, I think all your points above make my argument for me, and I don't think I can do a better job debating you than you've already done yourself.

So, I'm out...

One more thing you might want to ask yourself though -- why do some franchise stores do better than other franchise stores (of the same franchise)? The ideas are exactly the same, but since they don't make exactly the same amount of money -- in some cases they make widely divergent amounts of money -- what's different?

Could it be because possibly in any way shape or form they had the great idea to get into a great location with foot traffic and some of the others didnt?

We can play this game all day bro.

 

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[eliquid]

Maybe so, I only read the OP. Not the 4 pages between then and now.
Oh and great ideas happen all the time. We retired wooden ships and canvas aircraft some time ago.

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

 

[eliquid]

You know, my competitors aren't flame broiling burgers, merging with other companies, expanding internationally, moving into locations with foot traffic, etc...

But you think it's a great idea that I do those things just because my competitors aren't? My competitors aren't jumping up and down on one foot either... Should I be doing that as well?

You know, your arguments are getting worse and worse...

I remember earlier in this thread you were the one coming up with ideas like

Time Machines
Flying Cars
Fountain Of Youth, etc

If anyone is far reaching and making arguments worse, it is you.

Just because an idea is great in one vertical, doesn't mean it is in another. Remember, I also said in an earlier post about your Time Machines and Flying cars that "A great idea has to also be realistic and doable." You didnt take that into consideration, again.

Offering flamed grilled hamburgers in RE and jumping on one leg, and expanding internationally prob isnt realistic or doable for you in your vertical. After all, you said you couldnt scale your business and no longer focus on it. I dont think offering flamed girlled patties, time machines, or moving to a foot traffic location helps your specific construction business.

But then again, IDK. You're the master at executing, so unless you execute on those and test them.. how would you know. How about you execute on those for a couple months and let me know. Your execution can cure anything in business and grow it to billions. Please take on the tasks and let us see your billions in 12 months after you execute on them.

You have to look at what is your competitive advantage with your great idea. If your great idea doesnt give YOU a competitive advantage ( which is taking your industry into consideration ), then its not a great idea for you.

Get it?

 

[eliquid]

No im saying if the idea doesnt help your business, its not great. Sorta like your comment about flying machines and grilled patties.

That is unless your starting a new biz selling time machines

Test those ideas out you through out in this thread though with that awesome execution u have and report back though.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

[ZF Lee]

For those who come up with endless ideas but never execute, the advice is to just execute on something - anything. Get out of the echo chamber of your own head, and get stuff done.

For those *already* executing, the idea/model/lane becomes the most important.

Different levels of advice for different people?

I guess it boils down to whether you're getting stuff done or not?

Welp, I don't know how I ran into this thread.
But I saw some good arguments here. And I like this gem, Andy. Thanks!

Bump.

 

[GoGetter24]

I believe Idea = 100% and Execution = 100%. They are two sides of the same coin that work together to make the business actually exist.

But the question is balance. Idea work and execution work need to be separated. You have to commit to an idea, and then execute on it hard until you know if it's failed or not.

You can't be second guessing the idea once you commit, or you'll never get anything finished. And you can't spend all your time thinking about the idea or you'll never get anything started.

So I disagree it's a bad way to think about business: it's the only way. Basic OODA loop stuff.

 

[jcvlds]

But the question is balance. Idea work and execution work need to be separated. You have to commit to an idea, and then execute on it hard until you know if it's failed or not.

You can't be second guessing the idea once you commit, or you'll never get anything finished. And you can't spend all your time thinking about the idea or you'll never get anything started.

The debate in this thread is around what is more important to the success of the business. Not around balance. The way you are phrasing it is from a matter of 'time allocation'. You are referring to how much time should be allocated to the 'idea', your business strategy vs the execution part to succeed/fail. That is a different perspective than saying which is more important to the success overall.

The reason I think you shouldn't necessarily separate the two is because you need to be doing both, or nothing will happen. You should treat your ideas as fluid, ever-adapting. What does this mean? That your business strategy should not be set in stone. You do some market research to develop your strategy/plan/idea which at this stage is a hypothesis you are making. You then have to execute on it to find out whether your hypothesis was correct or not. If it wasn't, you should try to find the reasons why, the assumptions you perhaps made that were incorrect, and use that to re-shape your idea/strategy. You then execute again to test.

You mentioned the question was balance. It shouldn't be a question, it's the only way to go about it. Both hand-in-hand.

 

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[rollerskates]

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.

 

[rollerskates]

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.

.

Oh gosh, don't tell me that, I have many lists of unexecuted ideas. This particular one would have been good then. You're probably right about jumping in now too. :/

 

[eliquid]

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.

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.

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.

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

.

 

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[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.

 

[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.

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[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.

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