In my interaction with my colleagues and other acquaintances, one of the most common excuse I hear from them in starting up a venture on their own has been the lack of a ‘great idea’. They would say: ‘I don’t have a ground breaking idea with me yet’, ‘I need an idea which has minimum downside to it’, ‘I can’t find good idea for starting up’ etc.
I believe, starting up a venture is never an idea problem. Of course, if you have a novel idea, a new technology or an identified big ‘white space’ then a part of the problem gets solved. But unfortunately, this is not how the real world functions. Ask any ‘successful’ (you define it) entrepreneur, may be one who has been in the business for more than 3-4 years and having decent cash flows or a serial entrepreneur and they would tell you an interesting fact. Most of the times, they had started with some notion, some vague vision, an idea in mind which they thought would work for sure (100 percent hit rate!). As they got in the field, started working on it, experimented, interacted with ground realities, those ideas changed and the business models evolved. Finally they landed on the successful model after quite many experiments and failures (most of the times).
It’s not an idea problem; it’s a recognition problem.
Consider some well-known examples from history. Xerox developed the first personal computer, but didn’t invest enough in the technology and finally Steve Jobs and Apple snatched the opportunity away. Similarly, Kodak’s research laboratory was the first one to come out with the first digital camera in 1975 but didn’t pursue it. Instead, Sony developed a different prototype and stole the future of digital photography out from underneath them.
My experience and understanding has been that one needs to start with a basic sector/idea/opportunity or a gap/problem in mind which is close to his/her heart, where he/she can devote his passion and energy to solve that problem in the best possible manner. That business can be already existing in the market and you may simply do it better than all the others. One’s passion and zeal for doing business matters, he/she is bound to find the right idea for him/her once he/she starts up.
I look forward to your comments and your own experiences in the comments below.