I was talking to a friend the other day about my recent blog post on million dollar ideas and she said “Andrew, I have no sympathy for those that have million dollar ideas and someone else reaches the market before they do – those people have no one to blame but themselves” and then she went on to say “… but what about a large percentage of the people on the planet that simply never come up with million dollar ideas”. Well she did raise a valid point, and then I thought it through.
I think at some point in our lives all of us have an idea that if followed through and executed as we see it in our dreams or visions, could rake in some money – even a million dollars or more, but there are two problems:
- The creator of that idea does not recognize it for its true value and dismisses it.
- The creator does in fact recognize it to be a great idea of value, but fear prevents further action and eventually it gets dismissed.
Notice how in both cases, despite the thought process the end result is in the opportunity being dismissed.
Let’s look at the first case. This is the most common one and stems from the fact that many of us are not in tune with what others may be looking for. Though we may have a good idea, we think “that will never work,” or “who would buy that?” Truth be told, you don’t even need to have a great idea of your own. If you can find an already good idea implemented by somebody else and you can do it better, faster, cheaper or simpler then you have an opportunity. I know I have done this example to death, but it really is the best example to illustrate my point – Apple’s iPod. It was not the first MP3 player on the market, nor was it the last, but it solved the problem of being able to quickly get your favourite tunes into your pocket or blasting out of your car stereo system – mobile music and lots of it, without having to carry around awkward CDs or cassettes.
If you want another example, think of Sir Richard Branson with his Virgin brand. He has been able to offer fun, friendly and cost effective services in travel, fitness, cellular phone, music and finance simply by observing what was on offer and how it was falling short of what a global market was looking for.
So if you are in this camp, then what you need to do is find a product or service that you could improve on and get to work. There is your million dollar idea.
If you fall into the second camp where you do constantly have great ideas but dismiss those before getting started or shortly after getting started, this comes from the fear of failure. The best advice I have to offer here is that failure is OK. In fact, for each time you fail you get stronger and closer to your visions. The trick is to fail quickly so that you don’t spend an entire life time trying to execute your million dollar idea, because if that be the case it will probably cost you a million dollars instead of make you a million dollars.
If you often fail to progress your million dollar ideas to completion, be sure to write those ideas down so that you can clear your mind and come back to those at a later time. Perhaps then you will rekindle your former spirit and will then be able to make a fresh start on taking your million dollar ideas through to success and wealth.
There you have it. If you think you haven’t got any million dollar ideas – think again. It is not a valid excuse. There is always a way even if you have to borrow that idea or put the idea on ice and come back to it at a later stage.
