Sometimes the concept is driven home to me: a great idea is not enough.
I couldn’t help but consider this as I was reading the March issue of Inc. magazine’s “Cool College Start-ups 2010” — how many of these startups will still be in business a year from now? Two years? In last year’s roundup, the story of Michael Dell (founder of Dell Computers) was used as an example of a successful college entrepreneur. But there aren’t too many Michael Dells out there; in fact many of the 2009 college start-upers have already changed course. Does it matter?
I often highlight innovation on this blog because the output of creative minds is so exciting. And the commercialization of such innovation isn’t really the point, is it? If you don’t care whether or not your clever idea pays the bills, then you can simply post it on Instructables and move on to the next.
For example, my current favorite project at Instructables is the solar-powered trike. I can easily picture myself riding up and down the hills of Burlington on this electric trike (maybe I would make it a bike).
I’m assuming the creator (a student) is not planning to commercialize this particular build because he or she has posted it on the web. But a version of this idea could certainly dig a foothold into the marketplace. No special license or gas required for a stable, albeit slow-moving, vehicle. Sounds good to me.
But does the creator have the desire to be working on this one idea for the next five years, ten years? Does he or she have that single-mindedness of purpose?
Successful entrepreneurs are like researchers in this respect: they are happy to hammer away at the same problem, day after day, year after year. This may sound dull, but remember that this idea is certainly multifaceted and holds the promise of great reward: money and status for the entrepreneur; status and money for the researcher.
Yet you might have a great idea, single-mindedness of purpose, a healthy dollop of business savvy and still not wind up with a company like Facebook (which is still trying to monetize, by the way). Oh that’s right, we forgot about timing and luck, often one and the same.
If you tried to get your idea off the ground right before the recession, you might have run through all your capital and come out the other side battered and broke. Or maybe your idea is ahead of the marketplace. I owned a Compaq laptop in the late 1990s that worked like a tablet — not a hit at the time.
It’s pretty daunting, isn’t it. Hopeless almost. And yet…
What drives a creator to create is the process of the making itself, the ineffable thrill of sitting back and knowing you’ve made something unique. So in the end, maybe a great idea is enough. It just might not pay the rent.
