There’s a cliché statement about entrepreneurship that says ideas are nothing without execution, rendering the former virtually worthless without the combination of hard work and luck that can transform unmaterialized concepts into viable businesses. Some have described ideas to be a mere multiplier of execution, which is close to how I personally think about them, and I would add that the process of getting a great product out there is a vital part of what constitutes innovation in the first place.
In my view, it’s not that ideas are worthless per se, it’s that they’re never more than a starting point, a launchpad.
I’ve been thinking about this all day after I read this blog post by Marjolein Hoekstra (who I consider to be a friend) about the original idea for Tweetmeme, a service that aggregates the most discussed and retweeted stories on Twitter (we use their retweet button at the bottom of blog posts, and you should use it).
I won’t dive deep into the details of the story because I’m trying to make a larger point, but here’s the gist: Hoekstra feels she doesn’t get enough credit publicly about the original idea for Tweetmeme, and calls out the company’s founder Nick Halstead for acknowledging her role and suggest perhaps they should even consider writing her a check. According to her, Halstead has been open about her role in Tweetmeme’s early days but has stopped doing that ever since they’ve raised about $650,000 in seed financing for taking the service to the next level. Halstead’s side of the story boils down to the fact that she was very involved in the (not so great) first version of the product, but they let it languish for 8 months and finally refocused and turned it into a great service without her help.
I tend to lean towards Halstead’s view on all this, despite my respect for Marjolein and knowing how knowledgeable she is about the Web and Twitter in particular. The way I see it, Tweetmeme is what it is in part of what Hoekstra talked about with Halstead et al. in the early days, through direct messages on Twitter and conversations on Skype. But it was a fairly obvious idea in the first place, and there were already others competing for the title “Techmeme for Twitter stories” when it first came out.
I’ve been in similar situations myself, having discussed business ideas with people online or offline and seeing them start a company, add a certain feature or rethink their strategy after these conversations (not that I’m saying I’m always right, quite the contrary). Sometimes I get credited, sometimes I don’t. But usually it’s not something I care much about, because I realize ideas are essentially a dime a dozen and there’s little chance that these people wouldn’t have made these moves without my help. Furthermore, most of the time it pleases me to see something happen because of something I told someone, whether it gets publicly credited or not.
I understand Hoekstra’s sentiment, but in general, I also think if your role is that significant from the get-go you should become a partner or somehow try to get compensated for your work early on. Complaining about not getting enough credit this late in the game comes off as envy rather than a call for sympathy, even if I know in Hoekstra’s case it’s most certainly the latter. To her credit, she blogs she just wants to get stuff settled between them and then move on.
Question is: what should one expect for helping shape an idea that turned into a business after many meetings, a lot of trial and error and some risk taking which did not involve her?
failure is an entrepreneurs tuition
I think we should all learn a serious business lesson from her experience. So that it doesn’t happen to us in the future if we do manage to come with a great money-making idea.
the lesson is -be prepared to actually work and do something. Those that do-get paid.
She was exploited she will have many ideas that follow this one of which that chump could have tapped into, that’s alright.
My old man once said, if you do good good will follow you , the chump that exploited her will understand this in time.
Real work is what really counts in the end, not just ideas, thoughts and talks.
Ideas are great. Without them, there’s no innovation. But roughly everyone gets ideas, the same ideas, some better, some inferior, about the same topics and in the same industry.
Hoekstra should feel bad if the idea was the only thing that gave her her food. If the idea is the only source of income, then by all means make money on it in every legally possible way.
If not, and if you have a brain that generates ideas routinely, first ensure that you get a good paying job that keeps your mind stress-free and one where you feel satisfied, fulfilled, happy and financially secure. Given that platform, you can just churn out really awesome ideas for the whole world in your free time, and feel good about it.
The problem is in the stark contrast of attitudes. Most people are crazy over their own genius of having thought up something that is actually already discovered and implemented by someone else. Yet, getting the idea is a great thing – you did think it up yourself, after all.
If others think up the same idea themselves, most call it uncool, some even believe those ideas to be stupid. There’s this whole _my_ idea thing that is the problem.
For any idea to become a famous or successful product requires a lot of things to fall in place at the right time and often in the right situation both. That is not easy to accomplish. The world does not obey your horoscope.
And hence although your ideas might actually be fundamentally awesome, they wont eventually make it to people’s lives.
If you have those brains, you can surely get a good job without exploitation and with satisfaction. The free time after the job and chores is when you use your genius to help others who may be in a position to see your idea change the lives of people.
If you are an inventor by any measure, you should ask of yourself to find more problems and think out unconventional solutions to those problems. That should be a good intellectual exercise.
It’s great when you get the credit for the idea. It only hurts when you cry yourself hoarse for months, nobody listens to you, then a year or two later, someone picks up the same thing and “succeeds spectacularly”.
That hurts. (Ask me ;-D )
The good thing to take from such an episode is that your ideas are really powerful. So in your little sphere of influence, apply the same brains to transform your the quality of your work.
And, if your ideas are good for needy people, keep posting them everywhere reasonable
Then you, locatordouche, must have at least 3 or 4 PhD’s.
You shut your stupid, filthy mouth – Brad The Fag.
“fag”, what a useless response to a reply that wasn’t directed at you at all. Apparently you like the locator guy and his complete waste of time comments. I hope you two morons are very happy together. Perhaps you can help him turn his turd of an idea into a great one. Then you and he can spam every forum from here to eternity.
Whatever, Loser….
Great line!
I meant this line: failure is an entrepreneurs tuition
Well i agree that execution is the most important thing as otherwise ideas are just thoughts. If you believe in your idea then execution taks place.
None of it can go without the other. Twitter must be the most poorly implemented site of the big ones, yet it’s successful – idea matters. There are plenty of counterexamples, also.
Google’s PR idea was what mattered at the beginning. If they hadn’t evolved beyond that, it would be a place for lonely spammers by now.
Oh no. Google was yet another search engine. Their execution was good. Their ad revenue model was even better. They had very little in the way of brilliant ideas — but rather brilliant execution.
well, no, it was not just another (if you are old enough to remember what existed before). Maybe the UI was similar, but the quality was unbeatable. Of course what kept them alive afterwards was the superb execution
their ad model they bought..Sergei for 2 years didn’t think advertising was going to be the revenue source. I agree with your post.
I believe it was Yossi Vardi who gave the Google boys the Advertising idea.
I like the layout of your site, but you need something big and bold telling a person what it does right away…and the contact us link doesn’t seem to work…
I have news for you-Twitter wasn’t the first to come up with this idea. Neither was Skype the first to come up with voice over IP. Execution trumps ideas every single time…You can look at singular examples but as an entrepreneur with 20 years experience wins, loses and draws-”those that can’t do” their ideas are worthless.
None of it can go without the other. Twitter must be the most poorly implemented site of the big ones, yet it’s successful – idea matters. There are plenty of counterexamples, also.
Google’s PR idea was what mattered at the beginning. If they hadn’t evolved beyond that, it would be a place for lonely spammers by now..
will you ever forgive me for double-posting?
sorry, i hate to sound like a jerk, but it would be really funny if Tweetmeme followed Sivers model (http://www.orei...tiplier_of.html) and cut a check for $20
seems like a good model
Nothing!
This is so long I almost didn’t read it, but you make a good point.
Dude, lay off the Twitter, k? Long? This article? It’s 3,556 chars – about the equivalent of one page (25) Tweets!
I really think we’re taking the ‘micro’ thing too far if we can’t pay attention long enough to read a simple article…
agree. world needs a massive dose of anti-AHDD drugs
and some spelling lessons, ADHD, even
Yeah that’s right. but more HDTV
None of it can go without the other. Twitter must be the most poorly implemented site of the big ones, yet it’s successful – idea matters. There are plenty of counterexamples, also.
Google’s PR idea was what mattered at the beginning. If they hadn’t evolved beyond that, it would be a place for lonely spammers by now…
stfu already
None of it can go without the other. Twitter must be the most poorly implemented site of the big ones, yet it’s successful – idea matters. There are plenty of counterexamples, also.
Google’s PR idea was what mattered at the beginning. If they hadn’t evolved beyond that, it would be a place for lonely spammers by now…
Of course ideas have value.
In Hollywood, they compensate ideas with points.
They compete to attract the people with the big ideas.
It’s one of the reasons that progress in idea-related work goes so slowly in the tech business and why the slumps are so deep.
So then, if ideas matter – why has my service ( SlideSix ) not taken off then?
I’d argue that offering recorded narration and external media with user presentations is a better idea then any of my competitors.
I’d also say that my implementation (rich user interface) is better then what SlideShare offers. Some would argue my design/layout isn’t the greatest, but I think it’s not bad for a non-designer
Where does that leave me then?
Ack…sorry for a bit of poor grammar…wish you could edit comments
Todd -
Your product is a perfect example of what the article is about. You may have a great idea but without the right execution you may not make it. Sometimes the initial people who put a company together have a great idea but don’t put a sound execution strategy together, You really need to look at the approach you took vs. the competition. It does not mean you can’t get back on track. I just tool a quick look at the site and I do see somethings that grab my attention right away. Would need to talk with you if you wanted some help.
sorry for the typo’s
@Dave Good comments. You got points.
How does the Hollywood point system work? Is it a team decision in a democratic way?
Most big tech companies I worked for have an idea / patent team rewarding people.
the person writing about Hollywood knows nothing…HOllywood ideas? yea, that’s why they make a Rambo 1-10, Rocky 1-10, XMen-1-5, Fantastic 4 , etc, etc. Hollywood is devoid of ideas.
“The [inventor of RSS] knows nothing …”
We’re lucky to have John Alpert then.
Ideas matter in Hollywood? They give points? Huh? What are you talking about? Are you referring to a Hollywood on some other planet?
You can shoot a movie with no talent in a month. You can’t build a great product or put together a great team in 30 days in technology…Have you ever worked at a tech start-up?
There is another thing about Tweetmeme that disturbs me.
When asked about traffic, Nick always says “Compete reports X million.” Everyone knows that’s because compete is counting the impressions from the ReTweet widget. The number of widget impressions is imppresive and Nick talks about that. Great. But why doesn’t he come clean on the traffic to Tweetmeme iself. It’s nowhere near 6 or 9 million uniques. Quantcast reports a few hundred thousand. Either way, the way he avoids giving details is disturbing. Just say you can’t disclose the numbers. But don’t intentionally lead people on.
You shouldn’t expect credit if you were helping someone out without a formal arrangement.
Beyond that, it’s up to the person you help to decide whether they will publicly acknowledge your help, or not.
I think ideas are very important. Ideas without action are useless is true in some respects, but a lot of action without any good idea is thousand time worse. Personally I think idea is extremely important if the founder is motivated. In other words being stupid and workaholic is very tragic.
being too smart and alcoholic is also tragic
I think the reason is that there is some case history that if someone came up with an idea for a company, and you didn’t have a formal business arrangement, they automatically get a “fair share” of the company.
Its one of those… who really started the company thing. So I’m sure legal must’ve told Nick to whitewash the story.
Secondly, if I’m mistaken, it appears she did nothing bust suggest the idea. Unless the idea is REALLY unique it isn’t worth much.
Look at Social Networking. Facebook was a late player into the game… after Friendster and MySpace has gotten big… how did it win? Through execution.
If I were Nick, I’d maybe give Marjolein a small stake just to “settle” it once and for all (2%?)
For another example go Google Apple’s “third founder”… he was only involved very briefly, yet when the VCs came in, he got a small stake… just to clarify the legal waters.
She should get lots of cash. As a suggestion….if you come up with ideas at work never ever discuss them. Pay a developer to code a prototype or do it yourself.
As we saw with Facebook, buy one of those write a patent in 24 hour books and send in the pre patent application (name escapes me now) that give you I think a year or two get things going. Also later as we saw with Facebook you can sue to get some cash even if your really don’t have a good case (see Facebook issue). They will pay you to go away. Also if you file the pre-patent then more than likely the company that steals your idea won’t be able to file a patent overseas from what I have read. Overseas a lot of countries won’t give you a patent if you have even discussed it public, but things may have changed be sure to check this last part out.
Ycomb and a few others have taken a step closer to making ideas worth more and in 5 years when more and more Ycomb type companies popup then they will cause a feeding frenzy, which will make these companies take a step closer to just an idea. I also expect foreign money to come in droves in the next 5 years or less, similar to the Russian deal with Facebook.
Countries like China will figure out they are throwing away money buying into has been companies and industries (US automakers, US newspapers, US banks,…etc…) They will want to buy, own, and make money on the future of the US not the past.
Or at least that is what I would do. Would they rather poor money into worthless paper (bonds, etc…) or into small companies for next to nothing that could spawn big paychecks later. China could be a Ycomb 10000x over for high risk low cost.
pour not poor
um-what US car company or bank have the Chinese bought into? You must have the US government confused with the Communists in China. They are the communists from the U.S.
Do you realize how arrogant your post is? “They will realize that…”. What’s your background ? Do much investing? how many start-ups have you done?
my guess is, “no” and “none”. Thanks for sharing.
Not all ideas are equal so I don’t think it’s fair to lump them all together in some general definition.
There is a difference between casual ideas, spur-of-the-moment inspiration, meticulously thought out action plans, being a conceptual visionary, etc.
In the case of starting a business, each of those differing kinds of ideas would have different merit. To argue the value of “ideas” you need to define what you’re really talking about.
@CampSteve
I have to agree with you 100%.
It’s understandable that execution is key, but if you don’t have an idea, no amount of execution will ever help you.
If I came up with a great name for a product, and then worked with the people to shape and help publicize a prototype, I’d certainly expect acknowledgment from the people and company that turned it into a business.
Nick’s explanation of “we happened to have technology lying around from a year ago so we built it really quickly” conveniently leaves out just why they happened to have the technology lying around. Oh and it also leaves out that they had a great name, and some initial brand awareness, lying around too. And it leaves out that it was Marjolein’s who came up with the name.
So I think you’re confusing two different things here. As you say, the initial idea is a starting point — without ongoing execution, Tweetmeme wouldn’t be a success. However, that doesn’t negate Marjolein’s significant role early on.
Nick’s rewriting history to take credit for somebody else’s contributions. In what universe is that supposed to be okay?
jon
“Nick’s rewriting history to take credit for somebody else’s contributions. In what universe is that supposed to be okay?”
- Orwell’s, and Amazon’s!!
in what universe does coming up with a name entitle you to much of anything? THe person who did the Nike logo got $50.00…It’s what you do.
The article is too long in the world of twitter, tweets.
Point one, ladies give freely and men charge for their services, contributions and expect compensation.
When partnering up ladies, always be clear you are there to work, collaborate and be apart of the paid team.
There is no point two. What comes 1st is the egg.
yes, if something can’t be written in 140 characters it isn’t worth reading….sheesh….Take some Ridlin.
It’s not that simple.
Some ideas are variations on a general theme. In that case, the idea itself isn’t worth much, it’s all in the execution. Partly because many othe people are trying variations.
Then, there is the new idea: something that really hasn’t been done before. That’s worth a lot. Execution will still decide who wins in the end, the copycats or the original author.
Yeah, you are right that it isn’t that simple.
But if you really want to generalize it, you can say an idea with worth just as much; is equally important as the execution.
Without execution, you have nothing. Without a plan, you have nothing to execute.
agree. very well stated.
Interesting discussion… one difficulty here is trying to measure the time/effort/$ put into the idea, versus the time/effort/$ put into execution.
Some ideas come out of long years doing something else, with an idea for an improved process or product in the industry. Others come out of a sudden epiphany during your morning shower. Because most ideas’ “cost” are hard to measure, the cost is most often incurred by– and the return garnered by, those with the money and ability to execute.
For good executors, the ideas could probably come from anywhere. But for those with good ideas, they should take care with whom they entrust or share those good ideas.
Incidentally, as we all know, the history of America is riddled with situations where one thought up an idea, but others got the credit, fame, or return. Think the McDonald brothers’ hamburger stand, the history of Taco Bell, or Edison’s phonograph who according to some was the 2nd developer of such a device, not the first.
Not quite sure what you mean about Taco Bell. It was opened by Glen Bell in 1962 and sold to Pepsi (by Bell, who still owned the company) in 1978. He made millions from the sale. What’s the problem?
@ Alain Raynaud: “Then, there is the new idea: something that really hasn’t been done before. That’s worth a lot.” – agreed 100%.
I mean think about the fact how many people made their millions from all those patents, which are essentially ideas explained on paper…
Everyone has ideas. Very few people are entrepreneurs. Very few people have the energy, passion, risk tolerance, confidence, and know-how to take an idea and make it a business.
If I have an idea and decide to share it with even one person, I give up any and all ownership of it. I accept that.
I respectfully disagree with all the comments.
Ok, I have an idea for a space shuttle design. Do I plan on building one? No way. If someone else “steals” my idea and executes it, I should sue him, as he “did” the idea? Crazy.
How many sleepless nights and good elbow grease go for execution? Does that only talk should write books for entertainment of others.
Lost execution without an idea is worthless as much as an idea without execution.
Idea is just a soft thought. Imagine the world where you can patent ideas? Bubbles and bubbles, where everything is in theory, nothing in reality.
Ideas should be Creative Commons unless we intend to use them. Its only a matter of time when someone else has it. At least we can get credit for it, which I support.
This article’s topic is the back story of project aleveo.com – Ideas are topics for discussion and execution. They should freely evolve. Claiming that idea is worth millions is pure greed. What if the idea didn’t succeed? Will you share the negative loss with the one that tried the same way you want to share the profits? Someone had to do it and try it, and usually it takes more than just thoughts.
“Ideas should be Creative Commons unless we intend to use them.” The problem with this logic is that maybe the person who has the idea wants to pursue it, but someone else has a higher leg up (capital, network, expertise, etc.).
“At least we can get credit for it”? Are you serious? You’ve obviously never created/invented anything viable in your life – if you did you wouldn’t have said something so absurd.
Patent law exists because it provides protection for someone disclosing their idea. In exchange, the world is exposed to the idea, so it can come up with something better. Execution means nothing if everyone is trying to hide their ideas for fear of them being copied.
“Its only a matter of time when someone else has it.” Thank god I skipped business school.
Your comments are first rude then obsolete. Nothing hurt more the world than patent laws. There should be a line between beeing selfcentric and being contributor to society. What you have written is normal opinion of mediocrity.
This is a new age where you won’t build businesses on information assymetry no matter what it is – an idea or technology, but a business model. Only such is viable and sustainable.
I am not the one that said that ideas do not belong to us – but many respectful authors. Have you ever read a book of one or you are to busy leaving comments like this? Tom Peters. Seth Godin. Nordstrom.
Ideas should be shared. If you don’t have the conditions to execute, set it free.
Read Eric Von Hippel, who wrote about his long time ago: http://web.mit....l/www/democ.htm
Times are changing and all of us are becoming innovation cotnributors while some will lead the innovative tribes.
This article is a very revealing look at the blindness of pragmatism – which doesn’t mean practical, it means blind action devoid of ideas.
A simple question is all it takes to expose the foolishness here: What exactly is being executed and how does it differ from anything else? What is being executed is *ideas*, i.e., an implementation of a thought into real world action. Remove the ideas and there is nothing to execute. Disdain the ideas and you’re in the position of an intellectual thief, pretending that being an uncreative suit that gives credit grudgingly after careful interpretation of a contract is the equivalent of the creative person who originated the idea the company is founded on.
In an abstract way you have a point. Practically not so much…”One day people will buy products online”..That’s an idea. It was Amazon’s execution that mattered.
“Man now with the internet phone calls can be made for free”. that’s an idea. Many people tried it. Skype won. Luck (timing-you don’t make your timing) and execution.
I think it is idea + funding that matters. Good ideas may be abundant, but not great ones. Magic happens when a visionary investor backs the vision of a great idea.
I agree completely. Once you have funding for your idea, you can hire (in my case, programmers) whomever you need for an hourly rate and nothing else. The idea belongs to you and/or your funder(s).
This is the route to start-up that I am following because I cannot find programmers for my mobile app who want to be a part of my startup for 25% of my company.
Value of Idea + Time spent flushing out idea + Actual work contributed – Individual Egos = Fair resolution
The first idea for anything is by its very nature vague. But without it the final end product would not exist. How to value that first idea is the question being asked.
The distinction between the first idea and the ones that follow while actually building something that eventually works is a complex process. It takes the visionary for the first idea but it takes many minds to spin the net of thoughts that eventually leads to the first ideas incarnation.
I guess that’s what you call execution. (…sounds so uninspired, which it really isn’t…)
I have an idea for a machine that prints out pizza. If you create it, please send me $500k.
Will do because if I can do it I will make billions and have no issue writing you a check for that much.
LOL. Well said! Thanks for adding sanity to this insanity. I love the guy with the, “they had a great name”…LOL, LOL
You will only make billions if you execute well on it, with a pinch of timing and good luck! ;>
I’m an agent for people with designs and ideas. There is no doubt that ideas and execution go together. One without the other is nearly useless. The problem is ideas come easy and execution usually requires a great amount of work over an extended period of time. Therefore, the ideas are undervalued.
In business, ideas can lead to profitable ventures. Therefore, they can have exceptional value. The only advice I can give to a giver of a business or product idea is that you have to be crystal clear about your intentions to profit from the idea. There are many methods of stating your intention to others; and many methods of protection of ideas. ( the provisional patent is not necessarily the best) So, if the TweetMeMe lady had the correct mission statement in her own mind she may have done better. However, it seems she even undervalued her own idea and treated it too casually.
BOTTOM LINE – Never undervalue your talent or ideas. It may be easy for you, but others cannot do it so easily.
Why do you say “ideas come easy”?
The process has no face so it’s nearly impossible to measure but I’d argue that it’s not at all easy to envision a worthy idea.
It’s interesting how this concept differs depending on the field. In comedy, the joke is everything. If someone takes another comics joke, but reworks it, expands it, delivers it better than the original, they are still accused of ripping off the first comic and being a hack. Maybe Carlos Mencia needs to go into IT.
People who say it’s execution and not ideas generally don’t have very good ideas. Since when is TweetMeme a great idea?
agreed
idea * execution = value
if e is constant (say 200 hours for given developer) then the value is completely determined by the idea
a bad idea will result in 0 value
a good idea will result in a positive non 0 value
a great idea is one that costs little to produce and provides high value
most people do not understand this seemingly simple concept
ideas are not worthless, they make work matter
If I had an idea for curing cancer sketched out on an envelope, but I didn’t have even the commodity skills to execute or the capital should I really get nothing? if something how much?
I have ‘just an idea’ of how to handle this problem, but it is poorly executed b/c I am not a programmer- and even though I’m unemployed I’m giving it away (and only b/c I don’t see a clear way to ‘monetize’ it)
If it was a ‘great idea’ I wouldn’t be giving it away. And around it goes . . .
http://spreadsh...Ag0K2JCkXVvTgNA
John – The machine that “printed out” hamburgers started the McDonald’s empire. Are you being casual about your idea? It seems you’re certainly undervaluing it.
Great article. The takeaway is that great ideas never involve one person but a team. It’s your job to protect your ass as an innovator or founder once you add the weight (aka other people) in.
Is the final implementation is the same as the initial idea?
The hard part of execution is figuring out how the initial idea was wrong and fixing it. Sounds like the final implementation of this product is quite different than the initial spark of an idea.
Ideas are like Mike Arringtons. Everybody has one.
William – Your comment is somewhat on track, but you have not taken into consideration the entire universe of business ventures. Some are so easy that the idea part way overshadows the execution.
ie. There’s the classic case of the idea to make the opening in the toothpaste tube a larger diameter so that it would be consumed faster. It would not take very much effort for the factory engineers to create the retooling.
I sold a manufacturer the idea for a name for his product. He paid me $75,000 for it. …It took me five minutes to come up with it! He spent the next few months poorly executing the development of the product. It bombed!!! …Hmmm?!!
I think you will find:
1. People who have ideas think ideas are the most important thing
2. People who work hard and execute think execution is the most important thing
3. People who have both don’t give a shit, they are too busy coming up with great ideas, executing them and making money
Personally I aspire to be in the third group (although currently distracted by TechCrunch – hmmm)
I agree, corollary is:
1s (steve jobs) can’t do anything w/o 2s and know it (1s are forced to appreciate 2s)
2s (steve wozniak) usually waste their time w/o 1s and never realize it (2s rarely appreciate value of 1s and ironically, often have disdain for them)
3s? that’s a short (and lonely) list.
The job of 2s is to realize the value of 1s.
The job of 1s is to learn patience w/2s.
A little bit of 1 and a bigger bit of 2,
Makes a perfect bit of 3.
That’s good enough for me
(forgot oblig acknowledgement: )
great analysis by Andy and Jeff in simlpe words
Great great post!! +1 rep
I loved your approach. That’s the key: brilliant planning + brilliant execution = $$$$$$$$$$
I am all about ideas and innovation. But it seems of late people are lulled into thinking a good idea is successful by luck. Take a look at the history of technology: it’s only been recently that adoption happened so fast that it LOOKs like the only thing that matters is the idea. It takes a lot to make a good idea successful. In short: good ideas + great execution is more than the sum of its parts.
True, more than the sum of its parts…
An Idea, thought based in theory. Execution, work based in reality. Crazy, convincing someone to need something that doesn’t exist yet
If ideas aren’t rewarded, people will stop sharing them. Since America is offshoring more and more of its execution, the subsequent dearth of ideas would be pretty devastating for our already shaky economy. And without our ideas, who would China rip off?
offshoring is not execution. It’s implementation. There’s a difference. Execution is the collective across the board achievement of defined goals and objectives. The most important execution beyond actually building a product is “go to market strategy” and that isn’t ever going to be “off-shored”.
I think common courtesy would not leave her out of the history of the service. Since she was mentioned and involved from the beginning.
Robin: agree with your view. This is an interesting angle on a theme that pops up, most recently that I’ve seen on a Sara Lacy post
http://www.tech...nt-than-vision/
with a response from Bob Warfield
http://smoothsp...ion-is-tactics/
My take on it was that “Vision” is different from “Idea”, and Execution is informed, and maybe even driven by Vision:
http://info-des...start-with.html
This last is why I tend to agree with you. Ideas, and even talking about them a lot, isn’t the same as grinding it out. All this said, I wish that this kind of thing did not happen and there were a little more grace in dealings.
At the end of the day its business and the first thing that should be done is establish a compensation agreement. If try to get some form of comp after an idea is successful or semi-successful, its probably too late. Things/relationships will change down the line, that’s almost a guarantee.
http://tweetmeme.com is full of spam & mashable links and http://twittersphere.com does a much better job.
I’ve been in a situation where my ideas were turned into an extension of a business… I was told I would get 50 percent of the revenue it would generate and as soon as the leads starting coming in a converting into sales… my percent dropped to 20… I walked and I’m glad to say I held back enough of my skill that they could not execute it without me.
I hope the outcome for all involved is amicable.
Karl
actually I hate to say it but you screwed up. You should have got it in writing. So you held back your skill and your 20% achieved nothing. Great job.
Caveat Emptor. You have nobody to blame but yourself and 20% for an idea was very generous and is not a sustainable proposition.
So even when you got a great deal you weren’t happy. You remind me of the sort of naif’s who always think they are getting screwed…
Hey John,
I can feel the negativity… yes lessoned learnt, should have got it in writing. When I say I hold back, I did what I needed to do to the best of my ability without telling exactly how to do it.
That 20 % was me doing all of the execution of the idea for the company as well… so I went it alone and am more than happy thank you…
I don’t always think I’m getting screwed and if you can make sweeping statements about people from reading a small snippet into their lives from a comment on a blog then it actually says a lot more about yourself.
Thanks John Alpert for contributing such value into the lives of others… you rock!
I couldn’t agree more-
“Everyone has ideas. Very few people are entrepreneurs. Very few people have the energy, passion, risk tolerance, confidence, and know-how to take an idea and make it a business.
If I have an idea and decide to share it with even one person, I give up any and all ownership of it. I accept that.” @steveo
1) Obviously ideas and execution are needed for success. Nevertheless, brilliant execution of a poor idea will fail, while merely competent execution of a great idea will succeed. Without the idea, the business is therefore nothing, and so the idea should be compensated.
2) As mentioned above not all ideas are equally important but if you really identify a better way to do things by looking at them in a new way, you should get credit. The plain stupidity of most business that are started shows that really good ideas are few and far between.
3) I’d like it if there was a gentleperson’s rule that an idea is worth, say, 5% of a company. Obviously it’s totally arbitrary but it seems fair.
This is a lot like what some songwriters (your truly) have to deal with all the time. I had wrote a song for an artist – said artist immediately went to every publication and news source and conveniently left out my part of the song — completely claiming full credit for not only performing the song – but writing it. It got so unbelievable the story (her story) changed from the original intent of the song, to some ‘tribute’ to her brother.
I had to fight tooth and nail for my rights to be protected – and eventually I not only won, I also got an agreement that this artist wouldn’t perform my song again (yes, I fought hard) – not on a record, not in public.
It was bad enough that the artist took credit for something they didn’t create – but when they asked me to relinquish half of my rights they completely crossed the line. I was willing to help this artist and do whatever I could to further their career – which the song did 10 times over — but sometimes being the ‘nice’ guy really does make you end up last. Enough is enough.
As to this lady, the flaw I see in her argument is for $8 she could’ve registered the name and for free she could’ve signed up an account on Twitter – thus ‘owning’ the idea itself. At the very beginning she chose not to – and in a public forum she ‘gave’ the idea away. Anyone reading her tweet could’ve been the ‘one’ – as she says.
Foolish. It shows she had no confidence in her own ability beyond having an idea. The execution in this case matters more.
Not only are ideas nothing without the execution, but ideas should be free to bounce around the entire community of brains until it finds the perfect host that will give it its best shot of survival.
A while ago, I opened a CC-licensed blog for fragments of ideas that enter my head from time to time. (http://vonk.leonjacobs.com) If somebody sees something in there that supplements an already exisiting idea, or they are able to execute, then they are free to do so. Because 99% of the time things pass through our heads that we will never think about again. And how does it benefit you to just clutch on to them for yourself.
The world would be a better place if society had a more open, ego-less attitude to ideas and more respect to the effort that goes into execution.
with ya.
Let me ask the following question – does anyone know of a “marketplace” where I can go buy and sell ideas (and I do not mean patented intellectual property)? If this does not exist, should it? If not, what does this imply about the value of ideas?
Just google it. There were many crowd-sourcing idea websites, ideas marketplaces and even idea forums. I think that faded out because it was more an ideal than anything. As the author of the article clearly stated, even if you shape and improve an idea, it needs brilliant execution. And execution needs a degree, knowledge, understanding, hard work and the whole pack of perseverance.
Sucks to be her and you don’t take it personal we all know that facebook had a similar story. So learn from it and get your props stay on top of your stuff GET PAID douchebag.
People come up with ideas all the time, the difficult thing is picking which ideas to focus energy on and effort on and which to ignore.
I have thought of hundreds of ideas for internet companies over the years. I’m sure 10% of them could have become great companies. 1-2 years before delicious I started on a online bookmarking project but abandoned it because I thought not enough people would use it over in built browser bookmarks.
This thinking seems similar to Marjolein talking about her tweetmeme idea:
“though at that time it didn’t seem likely at all that this type of service would become highly popular”