You Believe Thinking is Hard, Until You Have to Execute
AKA The ones we let get away
There is no original idea.
It is said that the moment you think up an idea, a bunch of other people around the world have thought, are thinking or will think of that same thing, and this means that in order to gain ground in this world of ideas you do not necessarily have to think it first, you just have to do it well.
I had the idea to write this article exactly two weeks ago as I sat in on a presentation about the Impostor’s syndrome by one of my colleagues. Why not an article about Impostor’s syndrome, you might ask.
The reason for this is, a week before that presentation, I put up an Instagram post about Impostor’s syndrome on 925_Company’s IG page. One week later, I was sitting through a presentation about the exact same thing.
Of all the random things to talk about, she chose that one and it got me thinking about the idea of coincidences and how the fact that you cannot count on being the only one to have an idea serves as more reason to be proactive.
So, I decided to talk about ideas instead, how ‘they ain’t loyal’ and how this lack of loyalty means you have to do more than think up an idea to come out on top. You have to follow through and execute the idea.
Let me talk about myself for a second (or two) and something I do that I realize a lot of other people do too.
I overthink things.
This is how it normally goes;
1. I have a great idea
2. I second-guess myself
3. I don’t do it
4. Someone else does it
5. I think ‘Darn! I should have done that’
Great ideas are well, great! but what is the use of a great idea if you fail to follow through and let that idea die off? Thinking is hard but following through is harder, especially in the case of personal projects.
Self-doubt and procrastination are two major things that lead to the death of execution.
Here’s a quick example; I started writing this article on the 28th of August and then I stopped because ‘Dear Lord, writing is hard, I’ll continue later’. On the day I restarted, someone on the 925_team put up a post about the importance of executing your ideas.
Short as it is, it basically says what I want to say in this article and when I do finally put up this post for submission, it will look like an article based on that post. One week later, and I am just getting around to finishing it. This post almost died of death by delay (and that is not the death I had in mind for it).
If you keep shooting down all your ideas without testing them for merit, you will always come in second to people who go ahead to do it and do it well. Running with a good idea, giving it your all and failing to succeed happens to be miles better than not doing anything at all.
If you do not take a bite out of the apple life offers you, someone else will.
I am pretty sure the Facebook idea did not occur to just Zuckerberg, but he is the one who ran with the idea and worked hard to make it a success and it is his name we know now, not the names of all the others who had the idea and failed to make it a reality. The thing about being a pioneer in a field and owning an idea is whoever does it after you will always be seen as a poor second for as long as you keep the ball rolling.
“Imagine touching the whole world with an idea. You gotta run with it first though” — @925_company
Stop killing all your ideas. Convert them into reality.
