[giantg2]

The stuff you mentioned should work, if given enough time and a lot of luck.

I know it's frustrating, but you can't force it. The frustration can hold you back. Even if you are doing this stuff to come up with an idea, you have to get lucky in a lot of ways to have it really work out.

I've come up with a bunch of ideas (mostly physical tools/products), but most of them are not very marketable or have something similar already. I have seen one idea from when I was a kid that was commercialized years later by someone else. I also created an app that was first to market. The user experience was probably too clinical and I didn't market it to the right niche. This is all stuff that I came up with because I was curious, not because I was forcing it.

Personally, I don't really get why people are so obsessed with startups. They're rife with failure, bad contracts, and other pit falls. I guess it's like a lottery ticket mentality. I think the people that are successful don't force it and don't see it as a lottery, they leave their regular job to work on an idea they're passionate about that also seems to fit a good business plan.