I'm an idea retard, how to alleviate the problem?

[DeletedUser84644]

<div class="bbWrapper">I think I&#039;m retarded when it comes to ideas. I can&#039;t think of much business ideas. I&#039;ve only got one idea. And yet I still struggle to come up with more. I understand the concept about focus but not all business ideas are exactly suitable for everyone to tackle that meet the C.E.N.T.S requirements. I feel like if I can&#039;t come up with a decent amount of business ideas I&#039;ll never be able to achieve the Fastlane, because I can&#039;t mine a mountain that I can&#039;t see. So how did you guys come up with your ideas? And look I know about the domain experience thing but I don&#039;t want to wait 30+ years just so I can find an idea. I&#039;ve tried the methods that MJ suggested but so far they haven&#039;t yielded me any decent results. My biggest impediment to the Fastlane is not knowing what mountain to mine.</div>

 

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[Knugs]

<div class="bbWrapper">The way to go about is to focus on your skills and knowledge and figure out the problems and issues in that space. You dont look for ideas instead you look for problems. Then its all about figuring out how a solution can be created and finally how it could be commercialised. <br /> <br /> Another way is to look at new business concepts in that space as well as old business concepts and see if you can improve an established business through innovation. Most of the ideas somebody has already thought off and acted on but most of the time the execution has failed. <br /> <br /> There are so many opportunities I think you either have the wrong mindset or have a mental paralysis going on. COVID created so many new spaces for business concepts to fill</div>

 

[Mike Stoian]

<div class="bbWrapper">Don&#039;t focus so much on C.E.N.T.S. . Working on a bad business is better than not working on any. Just start with whatever business Idea you have that you can pursue.<br /> <br /> And if you want more ideas, I always get business ideas because they fit a need that I have.<br /> <br /> For example: <br /> I was looking at mechanical keyboards and different switch types, but don&#039;t know which one to pick and I don&#039;t want to buy 30 pieces of a mechanical switch that I might end up not liking. How can I try them all, then choose which one to buy? Turns out there&#039;s testers. with 9 or more types of switches and are really cheap. <br /> example: <a href="https://mechboards.co.uk/shop/accessories/switch-tester/" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="noopener">Switch Tester — Mechboards</a><br /> <br /> But even these testers don&#039;t have all the switches that I&#039;m interested in testing. So why don&#039;t I make the testers? <br /> - buy 9 types of switches in bulk ( will cost just a couple hundred dollars ) <br /> - buy tester cases or maybe 3D print cases<br /> - put them together and sell them on amazon or somewhere else for 50 bucks a pop. <br /> <br /> People are fighting for these switches online. They&#039;re almost out of stock everywhere you look. And there&#039;s a huge amount of people paying big money for keyboards. see r/mechanicalkeyboards on reddit.<br /> <br /> So that&#039;s one idea. Doesn&#039;t fulfill all of CENTS, but I&#039;d be working on it if I din&#039;t have another one. So feel free to claim it if you want. Hell I&#039;d buy that tester today if it existed.</div>

 

[Andy Black]

<div class="bbWrapper">Stop looking for “ideas” and go help people instead?<br /> <br /> Where can you find people to help? This forum, Facebook groups, Twitter, Quora, Reddit, etc.</div>

 

[Madame Peccato]

<div class="bbWrapper">Start by not calling yourself a retard. Retards might see the mountain to mine, but they can&#039;t use the pickaxe effectively.<br /> <br /> Do what Andy said. Help someone. Helping doesn&#039;t mean necessarily solving a tangible problem. Make someone smile, improve their day, make them feel special. That&#039;s where you start from. It doesn&#039;t have to be about money all the time.<br /> <br /> Rewire your brain to tune into chances to help others.<br /> <br /> I don&#039;t know what , write a poem for your mom or tell someone a funny story. Lighten up someone&#039;s day. Start small. Engage in small talk with a cashier or clerk who looks down.<br /> <br /> If you really want something more tangible go help your relatives / friends. I can&#039;t give more specific advice because I don&#039;t know what you&#039;re good at.</div>

 

[roguehillbilly]

<div class="bbWrapper">Not a fan of the language...<br /> <br /> Do more reps. Have more ideas. Try having 10 ideas a day (on whatever, business ideas if you&#039;d like). Focus on getting ideas out, rather than getting good ideas out. Soon, you can start to filter them.</div>

 

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[Dark Water]

<div class="bbWrapper">I read this like I was reading /r/wallstreetbets. Ape together I suppose.</div>

 

[Johnny boy]

<div class="bbWrapper">The threshold of how good an idea has to be in order to make you good money is actually pretty low. <br /> <br /> I started a lawn care company and all we do different is we have good systems, do recurring services only, charge credit cards with auto-pay each month, and actually answer the phone. I wasn&#039;t out here sitting in a basement thinking of how I can start the next uber for sex toys, or the next tinder for dogs, or the next social network for fishermen. <br /> <br /> Have smart friends who own businesses. That&#039;ll help too.</div>

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

<div class="bbWrapper">Idea &lt; execution.</div>

 

[Parks]

<div class="bbWrapper">Start writing down every and I mean every inconvenience you see other&#039;s having and what you are inconvenienced by. <br /> <br /> Come back to it and try to think of solutions for it. The whole point though is to really get used to seeing inconveniences and problems everywhere!<br /> <br /> Examples:<br /> <br /> - Woke up this morning and the light hurt my eyes on my way to the shower. (Solution: Gimmicky sunglasses that help you adjust to light easier; maybe there is a condition out there where people have a hard time adjusting to light or light sensitive.<br /> <br /> - My employee said &quot;Damn your dad has a lot of glasses&quot; which was about 5 pairs of driving and reading glasses sliding around on the front dashboard of the car. (Solution: A glasses organizer that works well for small spaces; maybe has a suction cup stick on the bottom of it and can hold 6 pairs of glasses that hold tightly in a organizer in a car without taking up valuable space.) <br /> <br /> - My mom lost her glasses. (Solution tiny receiver on the glasses like the Tile Keychain Product; maybe have a charging pad you place your glasses on each night that charges the receiver. <br /> <br /> - Running out of safety earplugs for work and employees going through absurd amounts too quick. (Solution: Maybe by digging deep and having these cheap earplugs come with an HQ Apple like wireless earplug case but for safety earplugs they&#039;ll value it more psychologically and be less prone to losing their tiny cheap earplugs.) <br /> <br /> - Noticing how f**ked my teeth are in the mirror. (After reading things you slowly start to match your problems together with other solutions or information you have learned)(Solution: Have a training toothbrush for kids that has a glowing light on the bottom of it; If the kid is brushing their teeth too hard (Too much pressure) the light turns red! But if the kid is using just the right amount of pressure it will be a green light!) <br /> <br /> <br /> It does not matter if the solution already exists. You just want to be damn good at seeking problems to solve. That&#039;s how I&#039;ve been looking at generating ideas lately. Those are also real problems I&#039;ve written in my notes in the last week that I was like hmm not bad. <br /> <br /> There&#039;s a few threads already here too on idea creation I&#039;ll link here later. (Includes idea sex (mix matching solutions in different industries) etc.<br /> <br /> <br /> Think about it this way, Fauxpass today posted that he has a hard time coming up with ideas. He may even consider himself an &quot;idea retard&quot;. Quit cockblocking your mind and look at your inconvenience now; (Idea Generation). (Solutions: 1. Starting a blog on idea generation and business ideas that already work. 2. Become a Guru for finding what industry people belong in.) <br /> <br /> I always look at it this way as well; most of us are not genius&#039;s by any means. We just put some effort in, which is far far far beyond what anyone else is doing. So if I&#039;m having a inconvenience or notice something I share a little of the market mastermind of what it wants. By this I mean if your having this issue of finding a business or idea generation that means others (the market) are too, that or whoever fills that need isn&#039;t filling it well enough to meet you. <br /> <br /> Now apply that to your other inconveniences</div>

 

[Kevin88660]

<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 84644" data-quote="FauxPas" data-source="post: 933056" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=933056" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-933056">FauxPas said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> I think I&#039;m retarded when it comes to ideas. I can&#039;t think of much business ideas. I&#039;ve only got one idea. And yet I still struggle to come up with more. I understand the concept about focus but not all business ideas are exactly suitable for everyone to tackle that meet the C.E.N.T.S requirements. I feel like if I can&#039;t come up with a decent amount of business ideas I&#039;ll never be able to achieve the Fastlane, because I can&#039;t mine a mountain that I can&#039;t see. So how did you guys come up with your ideas? And look I know about the domain experience thing but I don&#039;t want to wait 30+ years just so I can find an idea. I&#039;ve tried the methods that MJ suggested but so far they haven&#039;t yielded me any decent results. My biggest impediment to the Fastlane is not knowing what mountain to mine. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote>A good rule of thumb is anything that is growing and you have some related resources relevant to the industry, for instance skill or network.</div>

 

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[holiday]

<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 23590" data-quote="Andy Black" data-source="post: 933067" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=933067" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-933067">Andy Black said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Stop looking for “ideas” and go help people instead?<br /> <br /> Where can you find people to help? This forum, Facebook groups, Twitter, Quora, Reddit, etc. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote>Andy Black - The people helper.</div>

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

<div class="bbWrapper"><blockquote data-attributes="member: 23590" data-quote="Andy Black" data-source="post: 933067" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-title"> <a href="/community/goto/post?id=933067" class="bbCodeBlock-sourceJump" rel="nofollow" data-xf-click="attribution" data-content-selector="#post-933067">Andy Black said:</a> </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-content"> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandContent js-expandContent "> Stop looking for “ideas” and go help people instead?<br /> <br /> Where can you find people to help? This forum, Facebook groups, Twitter, Quora, Reddit, etc. </div> <div class="bbCodeBlock-expandLink js-expandLink"><a role="button" tabindex="0">Click to expand...</a></div> </div> </blockquote>This is kind of like the &quot;find more work&quot; mentality, and it&#039;s true.<br /> <br /> In some businesses, you operate project to project. Obviously the fastlaner is the one in charge, but basically you &quot;help&quot; other people.<br /> <br /> They have a project. You figure out how to do it. They pay you.<br /> <br /> Building a skyscraper? Repairing broken equipment? Exactly.</div>

 

[TryHardTriad]

<div class="bbWrapper">In my opinion, there are a few categories of business ideas:<br /> 1. Brand new ideas - properly “Zero to One” concepts, patentable products etc<br /> 2. Remixes of ideas - combining two or more concepts together to make something new or valuable<br /> 3. A valuable improvement of something old - See MJ’s value skew chapter<br /> <br /> In regards to coming up with your own idea, it’ll come from a few sources:<br /> 1. Practice doing what everyone above has said and don’t sleep until you’ve written down something new<br /> 2. Scratching your own itch, there must be something you care enough about to make/improve/change in your life about a product or service<br /> 3. Just literally point at 100 things in your house and community and think how you can improve them - even in the most minor alteration, just practice and do it<br /> 4. Of course, actually being in the industry to first hand see the need for something that isn’t there yet/could be improved<br /> <br /> I spent way too many months of my life trying to come up with something novel and massively CENTS worthy - I would also call myself an “idea retard” too to an extent haha<br /> <br /> However, i think the business reps are more important than no business at all. I chose to just improve a common food product in the country I moved to that I thought was particularly deficient compared to the rest of the world. I found through selling, people love it and currently 2500+ people buy it each week.<br /> <br /> Ideas are worthless, execution is all that matters.<br /> <br /> Good luck bro, I know how it feels to be an idea retard!</div>

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

<div class="bbWrapper">Unless you already have an idea, searching for the &quot;zero to one&quot; or &quot;blue ocean&quot; stuff is kind of a waste of time.<br /> <br /> Are you in business to prove how smart, clever, and superior you are? Or are you in it to make money (produce value)?<br /> <br /> You don&#039;t need to invent the next earth shattering gadget or launch asteroid mining robots into space.<br /> <br /> Look at <a href="https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/members/47954/" class="username" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" data-user-id="47954" data-username="@Johnny boy">@Johnny boy</a> - his business is killing it. They have great processes and procedures on a tried and true service with perpetual demand.</div>