Image used under CC by Cayusa
I was reading an article in today?s Independent in their ?Business Start Up? and it featured a selection on entrepreneurs telling a brief account of how they got started and how to succeed in the current financial climate. It was all very interesting, and it?s something I would love to do, but without the motivation or even an idea for a business it is something that will never get off the ground. Yes I do have ?ideas? but deep down I know I have nothing substantial which I could truly believe in and put all my effort behind. My past is littered with potential ideas, domains registered, but nothing more. It ends there.
Anything I can currently think of is already being done by someone else and more successfully than I currently could manage, so there is no point in entering that market, but I would love to clear my head, have a good think, and even have the basis of an idea, a solid idea, that at some time, maybe a long time away, I could commit to give my all to. But alas, that is where I fall down. Ideas?
One big idea. Something I could genuinely do and eventually make money out of. There?s plenty of things I could do and make little if any money out of, but in a world where bills have to paid and I have to eat that is not an option. One BIG idea, that?s all I need.
My students and I were talking about these people who invented one useful thing and sold the patent to retire at 25. This may be a myth but gosh, I?d love to think of something brilliant yet so simple, and make money out of it! Like the guy who invented these paper cup wrapping so that you can carry a hot beverage.
Actually what you need is not a ?big idea!? but a series of sound little ones that can be worked together. ?Yahoo!? was a this seems like a cool idea and ?Google? started as a project along the lines of ?I wonder if this would work.?
Tesco (and I have no doubt others) started as p-eople selling stuff (same as everyone else was doing) what makes these different was that (a) people put on going effort into it and (b) people managed to find ways to make it appeal to more people than the other guy could.
Some people make money blogging and yet not one invented blogging and many do not have anything original to say.
The most important thing is to satisfy a need people have even if it?s not very inventive.