The Limit of Ideas

I am an ideas kind of person. I am constantly imagining better ways of doing any and everything. Part of that is I notice flaws and weaknesses in the way things are done.

Over the years I've begun to notice something. As much as I get excited about ideas, by themselves they are very limited. Like I said, I have had tons of ideas. I've even started collecting them for later just in case. However, I'm not a millionaire. I'm not a thought leader. I don't even use ideas in my job much.

So what is wrong with all my ideas? What is missing from my internal fount of innovation? It's simple. Implementation. I have not executed on any of my ideas. Now, I have limited resources. So maybe if I just had a million dollars I could take my ideas and become a billionaire right?

Well, maybe. But implementation is more than just going and acting on an idea. Lots of people have had brilliant ideas and gone out and tried to implement them. That hasn't guaranteed success either.

The Concorde was a supersonic commercial jet that was operated by British Airways and Air France between 1976 and 2003. It was eventually retired due to the downturn in the aviation industry during that time.

It was based on a good idea. Fast transatlantic flights between the US and Europe. Who wouldn't want that? It wasn't even an overly complex idea. I would consider it a great idea, even today. However, it never did gain widespread success despite the idea. The planes were expensive. The maintenance was high. They used a ton of fuel. The tickets were therefore expensive and only appealed to a small market. They lost money almost every year they operated. So the idea died.

About the same time a guy named Gary Dahl had, what most people would consider a really dumb idea. He decided to try to sell rocks, just plain old rocks, on the consumer market. He bought the rocks, packaged them (they cost $1) and sold them for $4.  He sold the rocks in little boxes with air holes and straw and included a 36 page booklet on "The Care and Training of Your Pet Rock". He sold millions. His "Pet Rocks" were a huge hit and he became a millionaire.

So what is the difference between these ideas? They both were executed, but the good idea failed and the bad idea succeeded. So what gives? It comes down to implementation. No matter how good an idea is, if it is implemented poorly is a no go. And even an apparently bad idea can see real success if it is implemented well.

That is really where the I see inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement. It is where my ideas largely come from. Places where people had potentially good ideas, but fell down on the implementation.

Ideas are easy. Implementation is where it gets gnarly.