Ideas Are Worthless…..Almost

Giving Away Business Ideas With Potential

There is a wide range of opinions on whether ideas are valuable. All opinions on the matter fall somewhere on a continuum. At one end of the continuum lies the opinion that ideas are extremely valuable, and thus pivitol to success. This man with the idea may hold it close to his chest and reveal it almost no one. On the other end, lies the naysayer, who says “ideas are worthless.” To say ideas are entirely worthless is almost correct, but a bit extreme (in my humble, but idea rich opinion). I will say that ideas are ALMOST worthless.

Before I tell you why I think ideas are almost worthless, I think it’s important to preface by confronting why I am writing this in the first place. Why? For two reasons:

1. Because if ideas are worthless, then they should be shared relentlessly (more on this later).
2. It’s fun

So back to why ideas are almost worthless. Lets try to look at this from both an objective and subjective perspective. Here are some bullets that attempt to explain:

• Ideas Are a Dime a Dozen — if you have a great idea, you should assume many other people have the same idea. Despite what your mom tells you, you’re probably not that special ☺. Assume conservatively that 100 other people have the same idea as you.
• Pursuit of Your Brilliant Idea Requires the Biggest Risk of Your Life — in order to pursue your brilliant idea requires you to risk your income and reputation to become an entrepreneur — an irrational journey and emotional roller coaster, which requires “a serious pair” as most will fail and thus risk personal wealth. Lets assume that 10% of people become and entrepreneur at some point. So now 10/100 people with your great idea are going to pursue entrepreneurship. BUT….people have more than one good idea over there life that leads them to ultimately become an entrepreneur. So the % that pursue your idea is actually much smaller. Lets say each entrepreneur has 5 ideas. So the % that pursue your idea decreases to 2/100 (2%).
• You Still Have to Execute — so after you have your good idea, take the biggest risk of your life, you then get to the hardest part. Execution! You actually have to go out and build a business. Do things like, build a product, actually get that product in customers hands, raise money, hire people, fire people, grow, survive etc. Lets say that 80% of businesses fail (conservative). So now of the 2% of people that actually tried your brilliant idea, only .4% (20% of the 2%) will succeed.
• Ideas Change! — ideas that trigger a businesses success and fame, often aren't the ideas the company started with. Ideas evolve as you learn more deeply about what your customers are looking for and where opportunities may lie. There are countless examples of this. Some famous ones include Twitter, Instagram, Groupon and Fab.
• There Are Also Other Factors — you also have to take into account things like with most ideas there are more than one winner (business that succeeds). This happens across different geographies, segments etc. This makes your idea even less relevant to your competitors.

So what can we extract from all this? Simply, that ideas, are almost worthless. The challenges in creating a successful business, as outlined above, lie in what comes after the idea.

But why only ALMOST worthless. Because ideas are necessary as a starting point. A business that becomes successful requires more than just someone willing to become an entrepreneur that can also execute. You have to have an idea. Probably not a bad idea (pun intended) to start in a big market that is on an exciting trajectory.

So with all this said, what message can be extracted? If ideas are worthless than they should be shared. They should be shared relentlessly! Sharing ideas breeds: growth to ideas, relationships, debates, introductions, and most importantly innovation. If you’re going to use your idea and try to execute on it, than let others help you develop it by sharing. If not, you should hope that someone can take you idea from seed and make something of it. Wouldn’t that be better than your almost worthless idea that sits idle in your creative brain?