So Many Ideas, How To Choose? A Simple Guide To Getting Unstuck

[BizyDad]

Over in @Antifragile 's thread about scaling up in business, @mikecarlooch and I had an exchange. You can read it yourself starting here.

Basically, he was saying he has a bunch of ideas and doesn't know where to start. I've had this chat with several people lately, and thought I could expand on my thoughts in this thread.

We have three constraints as business owners.

1. Time.
2. Money.
3. Knowledge.

These constraints play on each other also.

With money, I can "acquire" more time or knowledge by strategically hiring the right people. @Kak and @Antifragile have been driving this point home lately.

With knowledge, I can find better ways to do things that don't take as much time or money (That's part of AF's point in the thread I linked to above). I can also directly convert knowledge to money in any number of ways, I mean, that's the point of the forum, isn't it?

And armed only with time, then I must use my time to acquire either money or knowledge. Preferably both at the same time.

We can quibble over whether a job, freelancing, drop-shipping, coding, product inventing et al is the right place to start, but as I see it, the right place to start depends on you and your goal. For me, the right place to start was banking. Much of the "business knowledge" and "business wisdom" I share here came from my 3 years as a banker. I definitely think others should do it for a time. I wrote about that here.

Ok, back on track. Three constraints.

1. Time.
2. Money.
3. Knowledge.

Of the 3, time is the most valuable.

Now if you are trying to figure out which business idea to start, many people say you should go after the idea that has the biggest possible return. That is certainly one way to go.

But I see it often leads to analysis paralysis. Especially if you don't have the requisite knowledge to be able to birth it.

Personally, I asked myself things like...

• Which one of these ideas am I capable of executing on today?
• Which one of these ideas will take up the least amount of my time?
• Which one of these ideas can I execute on the fastest?
• Which one of these ideas will tie up the least amount of my funds?
• Which one of these costs the most money to start? The least?
• Which one of these ideas will make enough profit that I bring people on board the fastest?
• If I do this, what kinds of activities will I take part in?
• What will my day to day look like?
• What kinds of conversations will I have in this business?
• Do I know anyone who can help me along this path?
• Do I know anyone who will partner with me on this?
• Which idea gets me most excited?

Other than the final question, do you see how each one of these is simply a factor, a variation, of the time/money/knowledge theme?

These are thing I ask myself based on what I think is important in my life. But you shouldn't just take these word for word (I mean, you can. Feel free.) Throw some of your own in there...

After asking myself a series of questions like this, I usually take a look at the answers and the choice becomes pretty clear.

Worst case, then maybe you at least have it narrowed down to two or three ideas.

And then I start talking to some people. Doing some market research. Coming up with a game plan in my head for stage 1, stage 2, stage 3 of the company.

And remember this, you don't need all the stages in order to start executing on stage 1. That's what I talk about in my post about meeting MJ (link in bio).

You can take this one step further.

Stuck trying to decide how to fix a problem? Run it through the time/money/knowledge matrix of questions also.

• How long will this take me to fix it?
• Who can I get to fix it?
• How much will this cost to fix?
• Who knows how to fix it?
• Can I somehow help the person that knows how to fix my problem, so I don't have to spend money on it?

I believe if you come up with a good enough list of questions, answer them, then the best solution often becomes obvious.

That's really all the time I have to write right now. Hopefully you can see even more ways to apply this kind of Socratic thinking to your decision process.

I know a couple of people already said this helped them. I hope it helps you get moving on your journey too.

 

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[Antifragile]

To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.

 

[CJNesbit4]

Thanks for the post. I like the series of questions you included too, very useful.

 

[mikecarlooch]

And then I start talking to some people. Doing some market research. Coming up with a game plan in my head for stage 1, stage 2, stage 3 of the company.

I've heard a lot about the concept of getting on the phone with 50 people before creating a product, asking them what they think and what they'd want inside an offer regading the best product in X category - I believe it was Jason Cohen from WP Engine. Is this what you mean by talking to people + doing market research? I know there's a ton of ways to do it, but would love to hear if you have some general tips on doing it in a way that isn't wasted time scrolling through sites

 

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[BizyDad]

I've heard a lot about the concept of getting on the phone with 50 people before creating a product, asking them what they think and what they'd want inside an offer regading the best product in X category - I believe it was Jason Cohen from WP Engine. Is this what you mean by talking to people + doing market research? I know there's a ton of ways to do it, but would love to hear if you have some general tips on doing it in a way that isn't wasted time scrolling through sites

I'm a search engine marketing guy. So most of the time, the only market research I need to do is to see if people are googling for XYZ.

I've been doing that for 13 years, growing other people's start ups.

That said, I recently had an idea for a product. I've never made my own product before. I've been sitting on the idea for 6 years. I was finally ready to pull the trigger.

I wrote this in the rant thread. It talks about a couple other things I did in my research phase.

I've been sitting on an idea for 6 years.

I just never had the time or the bandwidth to try and execute on it.

Until 2 weeks ago. I finally decided I would move forward. I've had preliminary meetings with people to find/setup manufacturing. I spoke to a couple people I know in the industry to get educated on how to talk to a manufacturer.

I even visited a friend who runs a similar type of operation to get a sense of what it would take to run a business of this type.

And then I did a Google search.

The thing has now been invented.

By a company with bigger pockets than me. So I've lost first mover advantage. Which means it'll need a lot more of my focus to make this go.

Here's the thing.

I bought the item. It's perfect. It's got everything that I thought to put in it, and three other things that I didn't think of.

4 months ago they were getting bad reviews online. I saw none of the complaints present in the items I got. Which means they're responsive to their customers.

So basically I could go to market with essentially a knockoff, because their item is already better than I imagined.

I guess I'd rather be a loyal customer of theirs than a two bit hustler. They earned it.

Don't wait around too long people. Opportunity won't knock forever.

If my contacts weren't sufficient to find a manufacturer, I probably would have bought @Walter Hay 's book on sourcing and started a thread to ask questions of people on the forum who might be in this industry.

I'm far from an expert when it comes to researching an opportunity. These are just what my brain told me to do.

Hope that helps.

 

[heavy_industry]

Thank you for sharing this.
I bookmarked this thread and will definitely use this model for future decision making.

My problem is that for me there is a 4th factor that comes into play.

1. Time
2. Money
3. Knowledge
4. Meaning

This fourth factor makes me more irrational.

I find it extremely difficult not to work on the things that I find meaningful. This often means that I am going to leave some money on the table, while pursuing less profitable but a lot more meaningful projects.

I don't think there is any simple solution for this. I am not willing to change. I don't see money as an end goal, but rather a very useful tool for achieving my vision. One of the tools in the toolbox.

I think that the only way forward is to design a system where the time/money/knowledge foundation is covered, so I can have uninterrupted focus for the things that I truly want to do.

 

[rahulkapoor]

Thanks for this post. I get stuck way too many times. Maybe this time I'll have few answers to my questions.

 

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[BizyDad]

Thanks for this post. I get stuck way too many times. Maybe this time I'll have few answers to my questions.

Welcome to the forum.

Thank you for sharing this.
I bookmarked this thread and will definitely use this model for future decision making.

My problem is that for me there is a 4th factor that comes into play.

1. Time
2. Money
3. Knowledge
4. Meaning

This fourth factor makes me more irrational.

I find it extremely difficult not to work on the things that I find meaningful. This often means that I am going to leave some money on the table, while pursuing less profitable but a lot more meaningful projects.

I don't think there is any simple solution for this. I am not willing to change. I don't see money as an end goal, but rather a very useful tool for achieving my vision. One of the tools in the toolbox.

I think that the only way forward is to design a system where the time/money/knowledge foundation is covered, so I can have uninterrupted focus for the things that I truly want to do.

I have a saying, do the right things and the money will follow.

I don't know if I picked this up from somewhere, or if I adjusted someone else's quote, but I think I understand where you are coming from.

That said, I don't think this is a fourth factor. Meaning simply boils down to how you want to choose to spend your time. You have a limited amount of minutes on this Earth. You get to choose how to spend them. And no human gets to tell you whether you are right or wrong.

I could also make the case that meaning is an offshoot of the type of knowledge you want to pursue.

Either way, no need to overcomplicate the system. This is just your way of putting your own spin on it.

This fourth factor makes me more irrational.

I do not like this word irrational. I don't know why you would label this in a negative.

Maybe I'm missing something, I don't really know you.

It is perfectly reasonable to seek out projects and choose to spend your time on things that you think are worthwhile.

And it is eminently logical to say to yourself that you work most efficiently on projects that align with your values.

What exactly is irrational about working most efficiently towards a goal that you find most worthwhile?

I would argue that that's the secret to happiness in life. But that's a topic for another thread.

Regardless, imo, the only thing irrational is your use of the word irrational. Or, like I said, I'm missing something and I'm happy to talk about it more if you need/want to talk.

(I can't guarantee overnight results though. )

 

[heavy_industry]

What exactly is irrational about working most efficiently towards a goal that you find most worthwhile?

When I've said "irrational behavior", what I meant was something that would be irrational from a purely economic and mathematical point of view. The kind of perspective big investors and banks would have.

If the only goal was to make money and see the number go up, the most rational thing to do would be to pursue the most profitable business imaginable and cut off anything and everything that doesn't support this goal.

For me personally, money was never, and will never be the end goal.
I only see money as a very powerful tool as well as the perfect medium of exchange to facilitate long-distance cooperation between people that don't know each other, in order to build greater things and support society.

If I had to make the choice between money vs meaning in life, I would choose meaning every day of the week - no questions asked. I don't see any point in living a life that has no meaning.

Fortunately, this is a choice that I will never have to make.

Because I find entrepreneurship one of the most awesome things I can possibly imagine.

What can be more meaningful than turning your vision into reality?
Turning your imagination into a tangible, real thing, that helps other people and improves the world?

Entrepreneurship is the ultimate act of creation.

Steve Jobs was 100% on point with that "put a dent in the universe" thing that he was saying.

(I can't guarantee overnight results though. )

Overnight results can only happen in the gym, and only if you are using our training program™!*


*Results may vary from expectations. BizyDad and heavy_industry are NOT responsible in any way for any damage that may occur as a result of using the training program. The profile pictures are only used for entertainment purposes and should not be seen as being representative of the average results of our trainees. This is not medical advice. Following any training program should be done under medical supervision. Terms of service can change at any time without notice.

 

[AmazingLarry]

Awesome. This is really helpful to me right now.

I've been stuck in indecision for the past few weeks, except I'm trying to decide on whether or not to continue my existing business or pursue another idea. The time factor is especially what gets me because I don't want to throw away the time I've already spent and have nothing to show for it, but also trying to figure out if continuing will end up being a waste of time. It's like my brain is on a merry-go-round, so hopefully going through these questions will help break me out of the loop.

One thing I've found that's helped me in the past with decisions is to pretend like your friend is coming to you for advice on what you're trying to decide or figure out. You can play out the conversation in your head. It helps remove your own emotions from the situation and approach it with a clearer perspective (for me at least).

 

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[Albert KOUADJA]

Over in @Antifragile 's thread about scaling up in business, @mikecarlooch and I had an exchange. You can read it yourself starting here.

Basically, he was saying he has a bunch of ideas and doesn't know where to start. I've had this chat with several people lately, and thought I could expand on my thoughts in this thread.

We have three constraints as business owners.

1. Time.
2. Money.
3. Knowledge.

These constraints play on each other also.

With money, I can "acquire" more time or knowledge by strategically hiring the right people. @Kak and @Antifragile have been driving this point home lately.

With knowledge, I can find better ways to do things that don't take as much time or money (That's part of AF's point in the thread I linked to above). I can also directly convert knowledge to money in any number of ways, I mean, that's the point of the forum, isn't it?

And armed only with time, then I must use my time to acquire either money or knowledge. Preferably both at the same time.

We can quibble over whether a job, freelancing, drop-shipping, coding, product inventing et al is the right place to start, but as I see it, the right place to start depends on you and your goal. For me, the right place to start was banking. Much of the "business knowledge" and "business wisdom" I share here came from my 3 years as a banker. I definitely think others should do it for a time. I wrote about that here.

Ok, back on track. Three constraints.

1. Time.
2. Money.
3. Knowledge.

Of the 3, time is the most valuable.

Now if you are trying to figure out which business idea to start, many people say you should go after the idea that has the biggest possible return. That is certainly one way to go.

But I see it often leads to analysis paralysis. Especially if you don't have the requisite knowledge to be able to birth it.

Personally, I asked myself things like...

• Which one of these ideas am I capable of executing on today?
• Which one of these ideas will take up the least amount of my time?
• Which one of these ideas can I execute on the fastest?
• Which one of these ideas will tie up the least amount of my funds?
• Which one of these costs the most money to start? The least?
• Which one of these ideas will make enough profit that I bring people on board the fastest?
• If I do this, what kinds of activities will I take part in?
• What will my day to day look like?
• What kinds of conversations will I have in this business?
• Do I know anyone who can help me along this path?
• Do I know anyone who will partner with me on this?
• Which idea gets me most excited?

Other than the final question, do you see how each one of these is simply a factor, a variation, of the time/money/knowledge theme?

These are thing I ask myself based on what I think is important in my life. But you shouldn't just take these word for word (I mean, you can. Feel free.) Throw some of your own in there...

After asking myself a series of questions like this, I usually take a look at the answers and the choice becomes pretty clear.

Worst case, then maybe you at least have it narrowed down to two or three ideas.

And then I start talking to some people. Doing some market research. Coming up with a game plan in my head for stage 1, stage 2, stage 3 of the company.

And remember this, you don't need all the stages in order to start executing on stage 1. That's what I talk about in my post about meeting MJ (link in bio).

You can take this one step further.

Stuck trying to decide how to fix a problem? Run it through the time/money/knowledge matrix of questions also.

• How long will this take me to fix it?
• Who can I get to fix it?
• How much will this cost to fix?
• Who knows how to fix it?
• Can I somehow help the person that knows how to fix my problem, so I don't have to spend money on it?

I believe if you come up with a good enough list of questions, answer them, then the best solution often becomes obvious.

That's really all the time I have to write right now. Hopefully you can see even more ways to apply this kind of Socratic thinking to your decision process.

I know a couple of people already said this helped them. I hope it helps you get moving on your journey too.

Thank you so much for this post.

 

[BizyDad]

The time factor is especially what gets me because I don't want to throw away the time I've already spent and have nothing to show for it, but also trying to figure out if continuing will end up being a waste of time.

This is another thing I have been harping on lately.

ABL

Always Be Learning

If you learned the lessons the previous business has for you to learn, then you do have something to show for it. The time spent is a sunk cost. How you spend your future time is a choice you must make with clear headedness.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Upgraded to GOLD.

 

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[Two Dog]

I've heard a lot about the concept of getting on the phone with 50 people before creating a product, asking them what they think and what they'd want inside an offer regading the best product in X category - I believe it was Jason Cohen from WP Engine. Is this what you mean by talking to people + doing market research? I know there's a ton of ways to do it, but would love to hear if you have some general tips on doing it in a way that isn't wasted time scrolling through sites

Every time I hear this, I think "That sound perfectly logical. It's a minimalist MVP of sorts. Good idea." Then I remember Henry Ford's famous quote: "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse."

I actually did the whole Lean Startup weekend thing when it was first becoming popular ages ago. Part of the deal was going out on the mall and asking people "Would you buy XYZ?". Same as what you wrote. After talking with only a handful of people, it was pretty clear this approach was a compete waste of time. Wrong audience, no interest, product poorly defined, no money changing hands, minimal feedback - complete waste of time. It's basically interrupting random strangers and saying "Hey, whaddayathink?" and expecting something useful out of it.

Market research has immense value for established companies and products when the audience matches.