What Exactly Is The Value Of A Great Idea?
I mean … everyone has great ideas, right?
This is something I constantly think about when I am in my “Think-tank”/”Sandbox” ideation meetings with my team. In Startups and Venture Tech, ideas are the currency of the Next Big Thing. Having great ideas is important because it sets the momentum for change, necessary for us to realize our vision and mission.
At that level — Sure. No ideas, no advancement.
Then we have to start exploring what exactly is the value of a good idea. From a practitioner standpoint, having good ideas alone is rather worthless. I mean, they are great for pantry talk or forums because those settings do not require us to deliver.
However, in business, the ability to deliver is as important as our ability to generate great ideas that are unique and impossible. I would argue that the ability to deliver matters more than ideation.
Why is that so?
Take, for instance, the idea of doing push-ups. We all know, intuitively or practically, that doing push-ups are good for our health and mechanic maintenance. We also know that we look good when our arms are toned, not flabby.
That said, recognizing that doing push-ups is a good idea doesn’t equate to actually performing the push-ups that are necessary for our well-being. That is the issue.
Knowing alone is insufficient. We have to do it. And the gap between knowing what it is and doing what that is is a huge one.
Why is this so?
For one, consuming and interpreting information is a passive endeavor. The effort required to overcome the inertia of reading and understanding is a lot less than actually sweating. We can read about conquering Mars the entire day because it fascinates us. We can imagine ourselves looking fabulous with lean and toned arms the entire day. It is an allure without sweat equity.
When it comes to doing it, emotions get in the way. We can read all we want during good days or bad. I doubt that is the case when it comes to heading to the gym. When we wake up on the wrong side of the bed, myself included, I would already think of canceling the trip to the gym because it takes too much effort to get there, plus the expectation of hard work.
In short, while we want to be the best versions of ourselves, the undying effort and unwavering commitment to do what is necessary during bad days continue to elude us. We will simply bailout.
This analogy can be extended to ideation and execution. Creating value requires ideation. Realizing value requires execution. Execution is the key to turn dreams into reality. Unless we can deliver a can of soft drinks to our customers for consumption, the idea of an ice-cold-carbonated-fuzzy-drink will not realize any value.
Customers know that. Business-owners know that.
When it comes back to the original question of this story — I think it is important to recognize this.
Great ideas without execution have very little value. Of course, there could be entertainment value in terms of engagement. There is nothing beyond that.
When great ideas are paired with the ability to relentless execution, we have a gem in the making. That is when we can take our products/services to show to the World that we are here and ready to solve your problems.
Now, that is the real value of great ideas.
Execute on Great Ideas!
Aldric
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