Is My Idea Worth Doing?
Before we dive in this week, I wanted to bring up some feedback from last week from one or our Matter Makers.
Tom writes…
“It might be that #3 should be Do You Know Whether It’s Viable/Innovative, since as you note, one might be solving an already-solved problem. It could still be viable in that case if the existing solution is inadequate somehow, but then the focus can be on what differentiates your solution. And that’s typically what a lot of innovators deal with since there aren’t truly that many completely new ideas under the sun!”
I completely agree with Tom and good point. Just because it exists doesn’t mean we can’t make it better!
Ok, now for this weeks idea.
Is my idea worth doing?
Ok, so we know that an idea is good if we know that we can say yes to the following three questions.
Is it simple?
Does it solve a problem for me?
Do I know why it’s a good idea?
But even if it is a good idea, is it worth doing? I think this comes down to two fundamental questions. Can you and do you want to?
First, can you?
I know this seems a little oversimplified, but it’s a legitimate question. Can you do what it’s going to take to make your solution happen? Do you have the time, the money and the expertise to pull it off?
I once had a client that was a research scientist tell me that everything is on a spectrum. There is very little that is binary. The answer is more likely “maybe” than “yes” or “no”. It will depend on your personal preferences but here are a few things to keep in mind.
Money, expertise, and time are all on a spectrum. If you don’t have the right skills and you are running out of time, hire it. Have enough time but no money? Become the expert. If you have enough expertise but no time, buy it from somewhere else. It’s that simple. If you don’t have any money, time or expertise, then no, this is not worth doing.
This may seem obvious. Yet, far too many people delude themselves into thinking they can pull off an idea when they have no time, money, or expertise. More on this idea in coming newsletters.
This means you need to make some decisions about priorities. For instance, how much TV do you watch? Do you binge watch the Walking Dead? Well, that’s a ton of hours right there? Watch one show a night? That’s 45 minutes a day that can go towards your idea. Which brings us to the second question.
Do you want to?
Really, do you REALLY want to do this? What are you willing to sacrifice in order to do it.
While I was on a photo assignment for a client in South Africa, I had the extraordinary experience of visiting the townships north of Cape Town. As we walked about and met people, we visited with the “Flower Man.” He builds decorative flowers out of hand cut, glued and painted aluminum cans. This man had made a business out of nothing to provide for his family. I was humbled by his persistence and grit.
So, if you have the time, money or expertise and you want to see this happen, then dive in and get started. Even if it’s only 45 minutes a day. And if not, become the expert or make the time or raise the money. Or… Buzzfeed has some cool top 10 articles.
Next week we’ll talk about how much you should build. As always, lemme know what you think.
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This is the from the archive of an ongoing series called Making Things That Matter. Each week I will send you an email with another step in the process of building products and launching ideas. Signup here to join the conversation.
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