[mdorazio]

Here's what worked for me: stop fantasizing and actually go try to start another business around one of your ideas. In my case (and for most people) it failed and cured me of this mindset. Ideas are easy and problems are infinite. Execution is hard and unless you're really in love with the problem, it's usually not worth it.

[ransom1538]

"Ideas are easy"

I know this attitude commands HN. However, I just never understood this comment. I have seen MIT grads, with millions in funding fail because their idea was horrible. I have seen non tech - was working in fast food grads pull off a company because their idea was not terrible. As I got older, I realized, its ALL the idea. It has to be an idea you would give up 5 years for, your friends for, and your excess time: shoot me over that idea.

[inconfident2021]

It is not ideas are easy, it’s just they are cheap. At a given time, multiple people may be having the same idea. So, only the speed of execution differs. I have seen horrible ideas get leverage because of execution.

You can see this prevalent in indie game industry. If you talk with designer’s everyone has their next big idea that can change gaming. But the industry is so unforgiving, any bad implementation or execution is severely punished. For example, see Dwarf Fortress. Stellar idea, awesome execution, but it took them really long time to hit mainstream. It is because the graphics wasn’t good enough for most mainstream people. Likewise, you see something like cookie-clicker going viral.

There is no not one single dimension to starting up. You need to be furious in all matters. Ideas are just multiplier’s. Good idea will give you enormous leverage but poor implementation is instant death. Even horrible idea when well executed can bring values.

It might be case they failed because they are MiT grads who most likely have a huge ego problem.

[6510]

> At a given time, multiple people may be having the same idea.

Ahhh, now I get it. What you describe here is not an idea at all. It is just something to do. (We could also disagree how to measure quality. I can imagine great ideas that cant possibly work or just cant be profitable.)

In the games industry for example a real idea might look like Pong or table football but one could also argue those are just iterations of croquet. Maybe the real idea was the Mayan ballgame of Pitz and everything after it was just a slight modification.

Ideas range from bad to good but we each make our own definition.

Personally I'm looking for an idea similar to camp fire. The execution of a camp fire is cheap. Or take grilled meat or alcohol those are not cheap ideas!

Colonizing mars or a fusion reactor, those are cheap ideas. If you have ideas like that you need to do better.

[xwdv]

The idea should be easy, if it isn’t, it is a sign you are trying way, way too hard or you are reaching too deep into a domain you don’t understand and isn’t easy for you.

The idea should be easy.

[MarcoSanto]

I will humbly give my POV on this. I also never understood the VC verbiage until after I “launched”. Now here is what I understand after coming forward with a business idea: the formula for “success” is being able to “uncover” a market request for a product/service and SELL that product/service to them. In this regard idea = market_need = make_something_people_want. Therefore, to me ideas AND execution are EVERYTHING. I think what people mean is that “talking” about an idea is not sufficient. I strongly disagree that ideas are cheap, as I disagree that execution is a given. I believe ideas are oxygen, execution is hydrogen, what you want is water…

[Glench]

> It's been said that ideas don't matter, and that only execution does. I wholeheartedly disagree. You need both to succeed, but you can only get so good at execution. A great idea gives you much more leverage.

https://www.courtlandallen.com/how-to-brainstorm-great-busin...

[throwaway-001]

You are getting closer. I think what making it even hard is, money is not an issue right now. My search and hesitation has been my mental projection of seeing myself doing that one thing in a 5 year span in a complete loss just because of my love for it. Maybe I'm looking more for this more profound target where to focus my attention and energy in a more romantic way that just purely money making. Or am I just delusional in seeking this?

[jrumbut]

Have you considered starting a family? All these ideas about love and romance might be better expressed outside a business context.

[throwaway-001]

We do have a family, but again that cannot be all. I do want a deeper sense of purpose in my life knowing that I did something for somebody else, doing through a business would allow me to do it in a sustainable and focused way (not volunteering). Historically I always struggled not giving all myself towards an objective and that is how I operate the best of myself.

[robofanatic]

Have you considered philanthropy?

[throwaway-001]

No I haven't, I wouldn't even know where to start.

[the_only_law]

Unfortunately the job market seems less vicious than the dating market.

[licebmi__at__]

I believe the set of people who complain about the “dating market” and the set of those who believe dating is a market is the same set.

[wnolens]

It's still not about the idea.

You're assuming that the idea is going to make you give up years and friends for. It's the person that does those things. Personality traits are much more important here.

And if you've ever seen an idea through to successful conclusion, the end state always looks different (sometimes vastly) from the initial seed. So the idea wasn't important except to charm the person into going through the process.

[lhnz]

You are right and you will be more right in a few years once AI is better integrated into our tools and good execution is even easier.

[surprisetalk]

"ideas are just a multiplier of execution"

[1] https://sive.rs/multiply

[throwaway-001]

> unless you're really in love with the problem

You touched a neuralgic point of my experience that for some reason I omitted in my original post. One of my biggest source of frustration and sense of inadequacy is not feeling (or not seeing myself) that strongly passionate about anything/anyone specific. My last iteration of this concept was to fall in love with a specific group of people and explore the problem they encounter day to day.

[VoodooJuJu]

>Ideas are easy

Good ideas are extremely valuable and once they're found, they are (and should be) guarded. Oftentimes, the only reason a business is able to take off is because they've discovered a blue ocean (a novel idea) that no other fishermen know about. But once the word is out, party's over.

You can observe this implicit understanding by founders whose lips stay sealed when asked about the details of what they do [1].

It's harmful to the success of an entrepreneur to treat ideas cheaply. For many businesses, the idea is their sole competitive edge.

I like to joke that the reason most people here treat ideas so cheaply is because they're conspiring to get others to spill the sauce - so they can lap it up for themselves!

[1] "That project has now turned into ~$30k/mo profit..." - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29668604

[pier25]

Execution and setting up a business always takes much longer than you expect.

I started working on an audio hosting project that I thought would take me a couple of months. A year later I have a decent mvp and I'm starting to get my first beta users. I haven't even implemented payments yet. My marketing is crap. Etc.