the difficulty of good ideas

[cokeclassact]

why is it difficult to come up with good marketable ideas? are there consistently a large number of ideas just waiting to be discovered? is it a certain kind of genius that is capable of seeing the next big thing? or is it just dumb luck and seeing the right things in life and making the connection?

[tekmoney]

No one lays "golden eggs" everyday. You really have to train your brain to come up with ideas, then analyze them to see if they'll work, and then be able to pick out the best ones and "making the connection."

Essentially though, all you're doing is finding ways to make life easier for yourself or other people, or bring them satisfaction.

Ideas are definately a dime a dozen, and it takes a true thinker to pick out the best ones. So if you're coming up with 10 dumb ideas a day, keep at it. You'll eventually find that one that you can follow through on, and hopefully it will bring you success.

[DaveAPN]

Good ideas and profitable ideas are sometimes two different things. Lots of great ideas have come and gone because there was no money to be made.

Since the beginning of time, businesses have thrived on a surefire formula: Find an unsatisfied need and fulfill it. The challenge comes down to finding a way to make money in the process.

Cheers,

[cokeclassact]

sure but how does someone recognize the need that spawned the hula hoop or the pet rock craze. how do things like that happen? would u call the guy who invented the hula hoop a genius?

[DaveAPN]

Coke, you have got to watch the Hudsucker Proxy... Great hula hoop reference there.

Anyways... Those are 'crazes'. If you want to read a great book that will make you think about all these types of issues, I suggest Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point. It's all about how viral marketing and trends go mainstream.

Best,

[MsNadi]

The real rarity is NOT good ideas but GOOD people with GOOD ideas - and by "good" I mean people who possess the business acumen to take an idea from a brainstorm, to a viable concept, to a viable product/service AND NOT go broke in the process.

We all think we've got what it takes for varying reasons - education, experience, growing up in entrepreneurial families. But who knows - so many books have tried to capture what makes entrepreneurs TICK and be successful... and yet there seems to be NO common thread except for being smart enough to properly align.

I know part of what plagued us for a while, and set us back about 3 months, was attempts at being everything to everybody. We didn't want to limit our potential so we expanded our concept, and expanded our concept, and expanded our concept until before you know it, we were saving world hunger with a dating site (joking of course). Until one day we woke up and ralized "this is a bunch of crap". You can't be EVERYTHING to EVERYONE beacuse you simply won't be good at any of it.

Now our biggest problem is fighting the fear that comes with chalking up our day jobs and diving in, head first.

But hey, we're working on it.

And who says we'll be successful? (We do of course!) But in reality - its the "journey" we're after - and we refuse to fail. But when it comes to entrepreneurship, what REALLY is failure - besides not trying?

[MsNadi]

Good ideas and profitable ideas are sometimes two different things. Lots of great ideas have come and gone because there was no money to be made.

Since the beginning of time, businesses have thrived on a surefire formula: Find an unsatisfied need and fulfill it. The challenge comes down to finding a way to make money in the process.

Cheers,

Yuppers. So many people say "i want to start a business" "ok lets think of an idea". I know that can work but I feel like that is the backwards approach. Now that you've got the notion, you've got to find a problem, find a solution to the problem, and hope the solution will be applicable and appealing to other people. Because the motivation is START a business, not solve a problem, I feel like its synonomous to driving with no brake. There's no force that would cause the start-a-business folks to say "hmm...is this the best approach" because the motivation, is again to START a business. Not solve a problem.

Find a problem.
Find a solution.
Find a team of people who might have expertise in your problem, solution, market or general business knowledge.
Start a business.

NOT in reverse, IMO.

[cokeclassact]

yep i know the hudsucker proxy...thats why i threw the hula hoop thing in how about ideas for good tv shows? how do you come up with those?

[DaveAPN]

yep i know the hudsucker proxy...thats why i threw the hula hoop thing in

"You know... For the kids!"

[MsNadi]

You're trying to find a golden egg... you need to look around you and figure out what you know, what you're good at or what YOU find interesting and then see if IT has appeal on a larger scale.

[cokeclassact]

well thats the thing i dont know what i find interesting and i dont have too many skills, especially technology related. i have seen several of my ideas in the past become viable businesses but i never tried to actively generate ideas and i never had the technical knowledge to make the ideas reality on my own.

[noname]

why is it difficult to come up with good marketable ideas?

Because if it was easy, everybody would be doing it.

[MsNadi]

You don't know what you find interesting?!?!?! C'mon man, you sound defeated already.

What do you do? You're probably overthinking things. Case in point - the www.collegehumor.com guys were good high school friends. They wanted a way to share funny pictures that happened at their colleges since they went separate ways. TRUST that they weren't the only ones considering they sold a majority stake to IAC for $20MM a few weeks ago.

www.hurrydate.com is making a fortune creating events for single people in specific cities - where they can meet as many singles as possible.

And I think you're probably also putting too much pressure on yourself to come up with the next big thing. Don't do that, or you'll never launch ANYTHING.

:::me and my partnerette should take our advice:::

[robyang!]

Good ideas are very easy to come up with, getting the capital is the tough part.

[cokeclassact]

whoa...collegehumor.com sold for $20MM? that's 20 million? i had no idea these sites were worth that much money.