Are You Waiting for the Perfect Idea?

Back before I got into business for myself, I spent a lot of time dreaming of the business that I’d one day have. I set goals to do it, I told people that I was going to do it, and I was convinced that my awesome idea was just around the corner.

And then I waited….

and I waited…

and I waited….

Guess what? My killer idea never arrived!

The problem that I had back then, and I didn’t even know it was a problem, was that I was waiting for the perfect idea before I would allow myself to take the plunge.

If waiting for just the right idea sounds a lot like something you might be doing, this is a post that you must read.

The Problem with Waiting for the Perfect Idea

Nobody ever has a perfect idea. I never have, I can assure you of that.

In fact, for most of us, when we look back, our first idea usually turned out to be not a very good one…assuming we took action on it, that is.

What do I mean?

Well, if you keep shooting your ideas down because they don’t see perfect enough, you will never take any action, and if you don’t take any action, you will never get out of paralysis analysis…and if you don’t do that, you will never start anything…and if you never start anything, you will never get to iterate your first (lousy) idea into something that becomes a really killer idea.

Perfect Ideas are Over Rated

This morning on the drive to the office, I was listening to a podcast where a guy named Tikhon Bernstam was telling the story of how he founded Scribd; a document sharing site that is now used by over 100 million people. At the time that he and his two co-founders started the company, there were all entrepreneurs in residence at Y Combinator.

None of the 3 of them were accepted into Y Combinator to work on Scribd. Each was invited to Y Combinator to work on other ideas, and each chose to work on Scribd after meeting each other and brainstorming on how to solve a problem that they all had.

Take away the first (not as good) idea, and the second (awesome) idea might have never arrived.

The Downside of Being a Perfectionist

The point that I’m trying to make is this; if you are so consumed with finding the perfect idea that you don’t start anything, you will never succeed.

The world is full of ideas that are very worthwhile, but no one has ever executed on them.

Your head is also probably full of actionable ideas, but you are still working for the man because you’ve yet to take any action to bring those ideas to market.

The Best Way to Succeed in Business

As I explained in an earlier post, by far the best way to succeed in business is to be in business. If you don’t want to read the entire post, just watch the video below and you’ll get my gist of the post.

I realize that this sounds like a gross over simplification, however, I can absolutely assure you that what I’m explaining in the video above is true.

Just look at the history of my own online business for proof.

In November 2010, I began building micro-niche sites. That led to this blog. This blog led to Niche Site Mastery. My podcast was also a by product of this blog. Next, I realized that I loved podcasting so much that I wanted to start another new site devoted to helping existing entrepreneurs to get better at online marketing. This new site will lead me to write a book and hold live events. The cumulative revenue from all of this will end up being in the seven figures.

And all of this from meeting a girl surfing who told me to start building micro-niche sites; which in hindsight, was definitely not a perfect idea!

Take Action Now

They key, my dear reader, is to take action now on an idea that is good enough to get you going.

Put up a site. Get some traffic. Build a list. Build relationships with your readers. It ain’t that hard to do!

Getting a site up (and getting some traffic) will give you the feedback you need to adjust your course, and each time you do that, you will move closer to your perfect idea.

You will likely never find a perfect idea…because nothing is perfect, but I will promise you this…you will get ahead of the other 99% of the world that sits on their ass whining about how their life sucks and telling their friends, “if only I had that one perfect idea!”

What Do You Think?

Did this post resonate with you? Why or why not? What could I have done better? What part did you really like? I read every comment personally, so please take a moment to share what is on your mind. Thanks so much for reading!