We all have great ideas. We have probably spent a couple of nights out late with a couple of friends tossing around the idea of why something isn’t better or different, and fueled by perhaps a pint of craft beer too many, we convince ourselves that we are holding on to a secret that could change the world.
We conclude the with our friends with a dozen promises of “making it happen” and getting started tomorrow after work to see what we can make of it, only to go home, tuck in, dream our dreams, get up, go to work, get home tired, and instead of setting out to work on the perfect idea that could change the world we chalk it up to a night of too many drinks and let the idea die before it even got a chance to live.
Too often we don’t take our own ideas seriously, and we go back to our regular lives and our regular jobs to keep trudging along building out someone else’s ideas.
In the age where technology is available to everyone and gives us the tools to join communities around the world and share great ideas, as a society, we need people that will take those ideas and bring them to life. It’s one thing to have a great idea, but if the idea only lives as an idea, the impact of what it could do to help other’s will remain a resource that goes untapped until someone else takes the idea and runs away with it.
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
– Mahatma Ghandi
The first step to building a business around a product is to have a product that people want to support and that helps solve a problem. Think about your own life and think about what could be made better. Maybe it’s the annoyance of having to carry heavy groceries up a 6-story walk up, or maybe it’s the irritation you get when you have to rewrite your work experience into an online job application even though you have already attached a resumé that has all of that information on it already. Whatever you think is the worst is an opportunity to build something that can not only make your life easier, but the lives of others too.
If you don’t have the skillset to build the product yourself, that’s okay! No great company was ever built by one person from start to finish, and you shouldn’t expect to have to do it on your own. Building a business is about building a community around a product, and as long as you are passionate about bringing the idea to life, the number of people out there that are willing to support you and help out will surprise you.
So the next time that you are out having a few drinks with your friends and you come up with an idea, write it down, see who wants to do what part of it, and more importantly cheers to the start of the next chapter of your life!