Are You Willing To Bet Everything?
I think we ascribe too much value to “the great idea”, you know the one that will make us rich and famous and allow us to party like a rock star for the rest of our lives. I was watching a presentation last night by Gary Vaynerchuk, and was struck by a couple of things that he said.
He was talking about people and the ideas that he hears, and he described the “me too” craze that often grips entrepreneurs. ”We are Digg plus Facebook plus Twitter” or so the pitch often goes. I thought what Gary said to this syndrome was both poignant and accurate. ”F*ck that noise” I believe was the exact quote. Have your own idea, and create your own niche. The other thing that I thought was really great advice was a point he made about doing what you love. He made the comment that you need to be able to look yourself in the mirror every day and tell yourself that you are doing what you love to do. If not, you need to be doing something else.
It got me to thinking about this concept of the great idea. I have had lots of ideas but never thought I had “the idea”, and the more I think about it, I don’t think it’s about the idea at all. I think it’s more about the belief in the idea. Chances are the idea is going to change anyway as soon as you get your first customer or user or whatever the applicable metric is. So, instead of thinking about “betting it all” on the idea, maybe it’s more about “betting it all” on the person or people executing. Can you stare into the void and know you are doing the right thing, regardless of whether or not the thing you are doing right now is the right thing? And maybe for some the idea is more personal, like intellectual freedom or the ability to set your own course.
I remember a good friend telling me a while back that the acid test for the entrepreneur will come when things are going poorly and the easy road to take is to give up and go back to your old life. If you can look your family in the eye and say “I know we are doing the right thing” then you have passed the test. I don’t think that in and of itself guarantees success, but the lack of conviction probably guarantees failure.
So, the question may not be one of discovering the next great idea, but rather being willing to move all the chips to the middle of the table based on nothing but a belief that it’s just the next step in the journey, not the destination.
What do you think?
