Differentiating between a great idea and a terrible idea. How Do You Know When You Have ‘The Big Idea?’ I’ve had some good ideas in the past. Of course, by ‘good’ I mean shit and by ‘in the past’ I mean a few years ago. As a matter of fact, I can clearly remember in high school having a new terrible idea nearly every week. There was a time when I convinced myself I had the greatest idea of all time. I had just finished watching a documentary on how bad sugar was for you, and I decided right then and there — I was going to be the Willy Wonka of organic, sugar-free, all-natural snack bars. It pains me to tell you this today, but ‘Kind Bars’ kind of stole my idea (get it). . Bastards Hey, That’s My Idea! Have you ever seen something and heard someone say, “ ” Hey, that’s my idea! They stole it! I used to be the type of person who would say things like that. I would have an idea, think about how great of an idea it was, and then forget about it. The only time I would remember my ideas was when I saw someone else had built it. At which point, I demanded the financial compensation I so rightfully deserved. In reality, none of my ideas were ever great, or even mediocre. Although they weren’t great, the mentality I had set me on a path of destruction where I couldn’t distinguish between a great idea and a terrible one. My thinking was toxic because I had no real intention of following through on any of the ideas I had. All Talk No Walk I wasn’t the type of person who had these terrible ideas and kept them to myself. Rather, I would have one of these terrible ideas and then tell everyone how great it was. I would go on to tell them how I was going to build my idea into a glorious kingdom the likes of which . even Zuck would be jelly of The next week, the same people would ask me how the idea is going. I would proceed to tell them I had a better idea I was pursuing now, which would be infinitely better than the last one I told them about. This never ending cycle never kept me committed to anything. It Begins With Self-Awareness I was oblivious to my toxic thinking, until someone I respected deeply stopped me mid-sentence one day. While we were having a conversation about another shit idea they said to me, “ ” You never follow through. I paused for a second (I was a bit shook), and began to rebound with a big ole’ ‘ ’ statement. They interrupted me again and said: “ ” but You never follow through. I stopped, took a good hard look at myself, and admitted, “They were r_ight._” At that moment, I realized I had been burning all my time on ideas I was never going to follow through with. I then vowed not to put any time or effort into any idea, unless it was a great idea. What Makes An Idea Great For me to be able to acknowledge what a truly great idea was, I had to admit to myself every idea I had up until that point was shit. Once I stepped back and looked at my ideas, it wasn’t hard to realize I was being naive. Before, I was so infatuated with the concept of having a great idea, that I fooled myself into thinking every idea I had was great. I decided for an idea to be considered great; it would need to be a few thing: - (I can’t just say, I am going to build the Hyperloop!)- (If no validation exists, it must be created before pursuing it any further.) - (It has to be able to grow substantially.)- - It needs to be something I have a practical understanding of. There needs to be some form of validation for it. It needs to be scalable. It needs to be something I believe in. If it is an idea I want to pursue, I have to go all in. The Idea After a few years of patiently waiting, I was sitting in my kitchen one afternoon. I was thinking about disruptive technology I was working with and if similar concept could be executed in different industries. All of a sudden, the idea hit me like a ton of bricks. I instantly knew — I finally have ‘the idea’ and I have no choice but to pursue it. Here’s my idea.
