Reading this makes me think of a similar experience I've had which really emphasised the point "Ideas are worth nothing without execution" for me. These days, people say it all the time, but to experience it is another thing.
I'm starting to think it's very powerful (as far as necessary?) to go through an experience like this.
One thing I'm pretty certain of is that this experience will change Leo's thinking forever.
I'm starting to get very tired of this way of thinking.
Ideas are VERY important. They give you the direction and aiming point that your 'execution' will eventually be built from.
If the google guys had had the idea to let you search dog shoes instead of the entire internet (even though the idea had been floating around for a while), even if they executed it to perfection. They would NEVER have succeeded. Unless they 'pivoted' (got another idea/direction).
I agree there's a lot of this talk happening right now.
In my view, the point here isn't that ideas are worthless, it's that ideas are worthless without execution - this guy had an idea, and didn't act on it, and then saw a very similar idea succeed.
I think ideas are very important, but I think persistence is even more important, and I like the fact that the initial idea doesn't need to be perfect since you can pivot (yes, another increasingly overused term!), e.g. Microsoft, Paypal, Flickr.
The problem is that its intention often is misunderstood and it ends up just misleading people. It's supposed to be motivation for lazy entrepreneurs to DO something about their ideas but can be miscontrued and made to seem like any old idea, well executed, will win. Which from my limited experience so far, is just not true.
> can be miscontrued and made to seem like any old idea, well executed, will win
I completely agree. Though I guess it depends what you define as "well executed" if it's just executing the tech behind the idea, then it's likely you end up with something potentially technically very good but which nobody wants. If we define "well executed" as involving tech and also customer development, then I think executing a bad idea well must entail pivoting and therefore you actually could end up with a winner. What do you think?
I think that a bad idea becoming a good one is rare and almost like playing the lotto. Though i do agree that pivots rarely have anything to do with the tech involved.
Sidenote: Speaking of ideas, i just checked out yours, MyOnePage, i had a different idea that, strangely enough, i think could work well with it. I'll send you an email in a mo explaining it (didn't find your email add in your profile. Send me a shout at t[at]thesketch.org or reply here) i'll contact you asap. :)
Thomas Edison said it in 1929:
"None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration."
Contrast that engineer's perspective with the scientist's. Einstein: “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
I'm starting to think it's very powerful (as far as necessary?) to go through an experience like this.
One thing I'm pretty certain of is that this experience will change Leo's thinking forever.
Related: Derek Sivers - "Ideas are just a multiplier or execution" - http://sivers.org/multiply