Before joining @Mediagazer, I ran two news startups. Both failed. The experience was worth it. Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you want. I learned so much about my trade, about business and teams. I’m now convinced that businesses are the commercial equivalent of cities. Building them and connecting the pieces is hard.
But the most valuable lesson I learned came from working for another entrepreneur. We were tossing around ideas. Entrepreneurs are full of ideas. Their teams are full of ideas. Everyone has a “great idea.” That’s why ideas are worth shit.
I suggested an idea, something I was convinced we should do. His reply should be written in stone and placed in the office of every startup: Ideas are great. But only if you can do them well.
I was reminded of a Steve Jobs interview at the All Things D: “Apple is a company that doesn’t have the most resources in the world and the way we’ve succeeded is by choosing which horses to ride. If you choose wisely, you can save yourself an enormous amount of work vs trying to do everything.”
That is the problem with ideas. They keep coming. And nothing is achieved because effort is spread too thin between them.
This is the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make. They are ideas people. Instead of solving one problem, they set out to solve ten. Instead of focusing on one project, they take on 20. Projects and product specs evolve and become ridiculously complex. “Wouldn’t be it be great if we could just add this one feature on?” Soon, the currency of the company becomes ideas, not money. That’s a really bad place to be in. It’s when progress becomes confused with activity. What separates great entrepreneurs from the masses is that they’re ruthless when it comes to prioritizing.
Ideas are distracting. Most are crap. That’s why every founder or manager must use a filter to sort the good ones from the bad. Small companies, especially startups, have limited resources. Heck, even Apple had limited resources. So you’ve got to decide what is important and pay attention to it.
What we forget is that more is less and only a few things matter. Real progress comes from choosing what’s important and focusing on it relentlessly. It takes discipline. It’s how great startups are built. It’s how Steve built Apple.
I disagree (which won’t surprise you at all). Ideas do not kill start-ups, indecision does.
Ideas lie at the source of every venture. Brianstorm, come up with a bunch of ideas, pick one and stick with it. Once you pick one the only ideas you’ll need are the ones related to problem solving during the growth process.
But I see your point and agree with it. Ideas are like assholes, everybody’s got one.
Perhaps it’s better summed up as: idea(s), as in multiple ideas, too many drains on an entrepreneur’s time, too many chefs spoiling the soup, diluting the mission…
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