The truth of the matter is that ideas for a business or a product don’t mean anything.
I used to come up with a million business ideas a month.
There are only three things that matter when it comes to an idea:
- Is there an audience with money for that idea?
- Can you execute the idea?
- Will the idea improve someone’s life?
That’s it.
Your idea isn’t going to be fancy.
It will be special because it is yours, but it won’t be fancy.
There is also something else to remember.
Your idea has been done before.
In some form, in some fashion, your idea isn’t going to be unique. The execution of it might be unique. The presentation might be unique.
But in some form, your idea already exists.
Get over it.
You’re not here to come up with something magical out of thin air.
Your goal is going to be to help people.
How can you best serve your audience?
You can’t worry about if someone else is going to take your idea because let me say this again.
Your idea has been done before.
Maybe it wasn’t promoted very well so you can’t find someone else that has done it.
Maybe it has been done so well you don’t recognize it anymore.
But it’s been done.
But it’s been done their way.
You see, that is going to be the key difference.
While every idea has already been done, none of them have been done your way.
None of them have been executed through your eyes. None of them have been developed with your worldview.
Is the idea of creating an online business school that will help you create and grow a business unique?
Absolutely not and I don’t pretend that what we do at Odd Noodle is new or unique.
I don’t care if it is or isn’t.
All I care about is if what we do truly helps to improve the lives of the audience we are serving.
Obstacle.co is a blog about blogging that I write on occasionally. Is writing about blogging unique? Not even close!
And yet, Obstacle.co feels different.
Never Fall in Love
I never want you to get married to the idea of your business. Never fall in love with it.
The reason why is that I don’t want you to find it already being done somewhere else and think you need to quit.
I don’t want you looking somewhere else and thinking that someone is doing it better.
What I want you to fall in love with is the idea of serving your audience to the best of your ability because at the end of the day that is all that matters.
What you’re about to create is going to be something that has been done before but it’s also going to be new because you’re the one doing it.
Keep this in mind as we go through the exercises of trying to find that 6-figure idea.
Passions, Interests, Skills, and Opportunities
When it comes down to deciding what your business is going to be about I think you have 4 options:
- Passions
- Interests
- Skills
- Opportunities
Most people want to follow their passion because that’s what people tell us to do when starting a business.
There is one big problem with this. What if your passion doesn’t lead to money?
The reason why people say you should follow your passion is that it’s much easier to show up every day for work when you enjoy it.
“Work doesn’t feel like work if you love it” or some shit like that.
While I’m all for it, I’ve found that a lot of things that I’m passionate about wouldn’t make me money unless I went with some crazy business model.
For example, I love soccer.
Am I going to create educational soccer videos or start a soccer academy? Nope.
So what else can I do?
There isn’t much.
Do I really truly care about weight loss?
Not particularly.
Can I create an info product that people will buy if it helps them lose weight?
Most definitely.
This lesson isn’t meant to discourage you from following your passion. I just want you to be reasonable about it.
If you can make the money you want with it then go for it. If you can’t then that’s okay as well.
You can always do something else, make good money and still go and enjoy your passion without the burden of having to make money from it.
So what now?
Well, now you’re going to be analytical about this stuff.
You even get to fill out a nice worksheet.
The goal is to get everything out on the table. You’re going to list all of your passions, interests, and skills.