How to get ideas?

Ideas are everywhere but what about great ideas that can be turned into something tangible? And what about great ideas that change the world? To be honest I have no idea!

I have couple of those which address some of my personal needs or desires. A game I want to play but it's not available, a movie I want to see but it's not been made yet. Well, that's great but can I do something about it?

I guess yes but then there's a question - is it worth it? Sure you can do it for fun but if you want to start a proper business you'd better be good at doing what you are going to do or get killed. You'd have to do better than always.

1. Is there something that you know you can do well?
2. Is there something that bothers you in the chosen field?
3. Does it bother other people as well?
4. What can you do to improve the situation given the options you currently have?

These are just few questions I asked myself and came up with the answers:

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. I don't know, maybe.
4. Probably but the alternatives do not offer a solution being better in order of magnitude.

Last two answers need further analysis in order to understand if you have a valid idea. To get a proper answer for the question #3 you need to pick up the phone and start asking questions.

Number Four is the big question. You can be fairly sure that it has been tried before. Do some research. If the attempt has been unsuccessful then it's very hard to find out why because failures are seldom advertised. But there might also be some successful products. If so why don't you use them? Do you know they exist? They probably do. If they are not very prominent there are couple of places worth looking, e.g. here. If there's a product already covering your idea, you might still not be lost.

But you are lost if you do not validate your idea with your prospects. Who are they? Where to get them? Well this gives you a good excuse to call someone you already know but haven't talked to a while. And what to ask? Couple of very good ideas to start with here. WARNING! Some of these thoughts are field-tested by yours truly even before they came to his attention.

A month or so ago I called an old colleague of mine who is currently working for a company sooner or later going to buy a product similar to what I have in mind. So I talked to her and she was very open telling about their issues, the potential competition, selection criteria, personal preferences and so forth. Then I made a mistake and started telling that "I might have..." That was pretty much end of the customer interview.

Never tell the prospect about the product. Ask them about their preferences. Chances are that they won't be as open as my friend above but you might get very valuable feedback. If you are sticking in your product they will need to make a choice leading to multiple steps in their thoughts. Just let them tell what they want and you actually find out what they want.

Am I a Material?

The older you get the more you gain self-confidence. But years also accumulate wisdom (or at least ought to) which adds scepticism and makes you actually look like a fool.

When I was co-founding my second startup about over ten years ago I never doubted even though it was all on a very thin ice. I mean going abroad and setting up a company whilst you got no money, no notable sales-related experience and you expect B2B customers flock in.

After this endeavour I went back to someone else's payroll. I guess it's normal if you haven't got any checking account hidden under your skin. It was all new, all something I never was imaging, a manufacturing and supply-chain business. But hey, my educational background was (still is?) accounting and accountants are needed in every business.

Regardless of the above fact I never felt I was made for the job. True, I never had any technical issues with endless rows of numbers and spreadsheets but mental. At that time it felt that there has to be a better way to do things. I managed to put part of me into something that was supposed to make the life easier for folks who were like myself.

Some good years have passed and I'm on the next level of the spiral but it still feels that there's a long way to go. Having been an accountant, business analyst in a software company and business consultant it still seems that the world is missing something.

I was asking myself: is it still the dark ages where business software was written in some soon-to-be-extinct language and you really can not add any nice features to? Is it true that the customer still hate you because you make up excuses why this and that can not be done? Well, actually you tell them that it is not a good practise to do this and that but the idea is still the same.

But enough's enough. It was never my intention to bore you with my life's story but to tell that I'm going to find out whether I'm still fit for another enterprise. In order to get a kick in the butt I joined a Founder Institute program. First thing they asked was a psychological test pretty much like applying for a job.

Long story short - I made up a list with three good and three bad qualities I have. Something like:

• Can often see the forest behind the trees
• Rude to people for no good reason

The point is to be honest to yourself and find ways to improve yourself and take advantage of any good sides you have. It's even better idea to send this profile to handful of people you know and ask their feedback.

First Post or Getting Focussed

From time to time you feel that you will need to turn a new page in your life. This page is entirely new but the new page in life is already covered with notes and scribbles.

It's been a while since I started thinking of starting a new business on my own. There have been couple of such occurrences before in my life and I think I have done some more homework since.

I know, I need to focus on the business and do market research and stuff. But it turns out that writing is one important skill (as in here, for example) as well and blogging is a good way to improve it.

Late in the yesterday evening I was planning the next steps and I felt a strong urge to sit down and write some code. On the second thought, however, it occurred to me that one should have a backup plan or two. Especially if you haven't fully validated your original idea. So instead of coding I started to sketch out another idea.

Nothing new, it has already been on my backlog for a while but never gained full attention. I've always been thinking that focus is good. With focus things get done. But on the other hand what if you have been focussing on the wrong thing? I becomes apparent that focussing too much one will most likely loose unless he or she has deep pockets.

Before actually setting a focus you need to be fairly sure you have found correct target. Be aware that you cannot be 100% confident the target is right but if you have some hard evidence such as feedback from prospective customers you will have at least some other excuses when failing (prepare for this as well): you actually asked a question.

An old Chinese proverb goes He who asks a question is a fool for a minute; he who does not remains a fool forever.