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The "ideas are worthless" camp is saying that ideas are not scarce and hold no intrinsic barrier to competitive entry. The "ideas are valuable" camp is saying that being in the right market is more important than any other factor.
Both are speaking to the inexperienced entrepreneurs who believe that their ideas are the golden key to success. ("Ideas" generally means technical or design ideas for a product - I think you equate ideas to markets a little too readily.) Inexperienced entrepreneurs often think that when they have an idea, they are the only ones who understand the market. They don't want you to tell anyone their idea, because they think it diminishes their chances of success. And that is the misconception that both camps argue against.
Execution, judgment, perseverance, diligence, even luck - these things are scarce by definition, because they are terms that have meaning only relative to the norm. A team's possession of more of those factors strengthens competitive barriers to entry. Being in the wrong market is a kind of trump card that reverses all the other factors.
there may be "many" patents (solutions) for the same idea.
writing down your ideas even on a piece of tissue paper will help. occasionally, an idea pops on my head -- so that i won't be able to forget it, i write it down... then i spend some time at home "evaluating" that idea... if it will work, then "execute", etc.
"Isn't that a little bit like saying that having the right idea DOES matter?"
exactly. if 1 right idea is worth $1000000, and if 1 in a 1000000 idea is good. then and idea is worth $1. that's nothing given the current $ course.
"It also requires good judgment in order to choose the right route"
of course. but this is not the idea value. it's the persons value. a person with good judgment is actually worth $1000000.
you can not put value to something you do not understand.
lack of modelisation in idea creation process drive you to ignore the field and depreciate it.
What is not modelised is not existing in your grid, and thus has no value. but still it exist.
it s strongly exist, waiting the right grid.
I also argued that if a not-so-good business idea sparks a better one or induces a great idea for execution, the original idea has contributed some value however small to the final product and is therefore not worthless.
If you have an idea, do market research, plan the executation of the idea in detail and execute it to that plan - then you will acheive something.
If you have limited budget and want the something to be a success then your idea must satisfy a niche demand (the bigger the niche better!!)
The reason so many of us fail is that to have an idea you must be a dreamer. Dreamers by their very nature are not practical charachters. They become practical through experience (often painful). At the point they are painfully experienced, they must have the courage to take one last idea past the dream stage! Most don't!!
I also think that most ideas are bad. It takes good judgment to pick the right idea.
Two people who fit that last part of your article are Steve Jobs and Disney. Jobs had the idea for Apple, MacIntosh, iPod and iPhone. Disney Mickey Mouse, Family Entertainment on TV and Theme Park. All really wonderful ideas.
seems you need to get lucky too, since not every route leads safely to gold and not every mountain has gold.
also seems that much of the value in having a great team is that they'll be able to explore more mountain by moving quickly and focussing on the parts of the mountain that are safely accessible.
It is what one makes _out_ from ideas is what is worthwhile
idea * judgment * ability * determination * LUCK = $$$
How did LUCK come out of the blue in the Summary? I didn't read it in your elaboration... :)
Just pulling your leg... But don't we all still have sense that there is one factor that you cannot control. I guess our job as entrepreneurs is to maximize the chances for success by playing the factors that we can control.
But isn't judgment a part of execution?
This must come straight from Slashdot car analogy :(
It's not that ideas are worthless, it's knowing what to do with them, and knowing who has the expertise to implement them and bring them together.
The whole is more then the sum of it's parts, but knowing how to make the parts to begin with, and knowing what parts you need to create/invent, are proof positive that IDEAS matter.
The fact of the matter is rich people have the money to gamble on ideas with a buffer against the market, the average person does not have that. The fact is, if you took some really smart people off the street, who've been working on ideas and insights into many industries, and gave them a pile of money, they'd turn their ideas into successful companies or products, I have no doubt about this.
My idea of how to sell my ideas was simply to join a company and start applying my ideas to it's inner workings. That is, while having a job, thinking of possible innovations and solutions that would make the company work better and be better, even to think of a mission of the company it is not right. Then gradually start buying shares of the company, and think of greater ideas that company could realize and benefit, and hence, increase the price of it's shares, the part of which would be mine :-).
If you have mediocre team and you try to build great product you will most likely survive for some time, not succeed. By the time you'll improve your team someone will reuse the idea and "steal" your success before you're ready to achieve it.
On the other hand great team should be aware something is wrong with the product an should be able (if you're lucky) to adjust the plan.
The whole thing isn't so simple as you don't act in a single moment but over time in changing business environment. If you constantly adjust your business model you rise your chances.
Great idea alone is wortheless. Great team alone is worthless too. You have to mix them to be fairly sure you'll achieve a success.
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