What does it feel like to have a terrible business idea? The kind where people laugh behind your back as you walk away? Take a moment. Think about it.
It actually feels a lot like having the world’s best business idea…right up until the moment when the market tells you that you don’t have anything anyone wants.
I meet with a lot of founders that don’t have any idea how to figure out whether they have the world’s best or dumbest idea.
After starting a number of companies of my own, and meeting with entrepreneurs at all stages of the startup journey, I’ve come to believe that the ability to differentiate good ideas from bad ones and massage bad ideas into profitable companies is like being physically fit. The vast majority of us aren’t born fit. We have to train, practice, and push ourselves to get good at it.
When I was in high school and college I completely ignored all forms of exercise. But I was lucky, I was a pretty skinny kid. People would always say to me, “are you a runner? You look like one!” and it happened so frequently that I came up with a funny quip back. I would say, “I run from danger!…and that’s about it”
So one day, I was walking my dogs, and I thought to myself, “Self, if there was danger on this street, could you in fact run from it?” I decided to test my assumption and I took off running. I sprinted as fast as I could. I sprinted for two whole blocks until I had to stop and throw up. And after I was done, I thought, ”Man, danger would have kicked my butt.”
That day I learned that it’s pretty easy to make bad assumptions. Just because a lot of people tell you something is true — that you look like a runner — doesn’t necessarily make it so.
Your startup idea is no different than my perceived ability to run from danger. The only way to prove or disprove your idea’s likelihood for success is to test your assumptions. And whether or not this current idea makes it, you’ll be developing the muscle memory to validate future ideas.
So true! Loved the actual sprint down the street – had me laughing