A (Really) Bad Idea Might Just Be What You Need

Ideas are overrated.

Anyone can have great ideas.

But most people won’t do anything about them.

8 years ago, I was at a leadership meeting at Apple. We were planning the opening of a new store in Hong Kong and were brainstorming a slogan. In a room full of keen type-A personalities, both the decibels and the testosterone escalated quickly.

The director, Dennis, was quiet in a corner. He was observing the discussion, visibly amused, shaking his head from side to side with a hint of a smile.

“STOP,” he said suddenly and firmly.

“Stop trying to have the best idea. Put your ego on the side. Come together as a team, pick the best idea, run with it and make it better.”

Silence in the room.

He was 100% right.

We were all obsessed with finding the perfect idea.

Our ego was louder than our words and the result was white noise, chaos and inaction.

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I often have that same discussion with myself: dozens of inner voices competing to win the race and come up with the elusive perfect idea. It ends with a bunch of fantastic projects, but they are all in my head.

We often get stuck with the prerogative that we need groundbreaking ideas when, in reality, what we need is to go from idea to execution.

Think about it.

Great ideas are on the shelves. It’s Black Friday for ideas every freaking day.

But those brilliant ideas fall (and rise) to the level of their execution.

In fact, many business success stories started as (really) bad ideas that turned into something phenomenal through execution and a bias for action:

- When in 2007, two unemployed undergrad students decided to rent out air mattresses at home to strangers to make ends meet, people thought it was a stupid idea. No one is laughing today at the 91 billion US$ market value of Air BnB.

- It was never meant to be a toy company: when a young couple moved to California in the 1930s, they started selling picture frames from their garage. The sales flopped and they decided to use the leftover wood from the frames to build tiny doll houses and furniture. Welcome to the origin story of the iconic Mattel.

- In 1885, a pharmacist developed a syrup made of coca leaf and kola nuts to help with headaches. But when he brought it to a pharmacy in Atlanta, they mixed it with carbonated water and that’s how Coca-Cola was born.

Great ideas = Bad ideas + Execution + Iteration 

A few days ago, my friend Kristina God posted this in her chat and it couldn’t have been more timely.

I smiled.

As the topic for January at The Lemon Tree Mindset is innovation, I will leave you with one challenge:

What is one (bad) idea you can turn into action today?

“Just make it exist first. You can make it good later.” Credit: everywhere online

Lemons & Lemonade 🍋

Here are more resources to boost your innovation and help you with your digital strategy:

📝 One Post: The Crazy Story Of How My Substack Was Born (116 new subscribers)

🎥 One Video: Your Substack Notes Blueprint Tutorial (18 minutes)

🎬 One Webinar: Becoming a Substack Bestseller

📙 One book: The Lemon Tree Mindset

💡One Note: Founding Member sessions

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