If one is so capable of building something, why haven't you built XYZ and sold it for many millions already?
Because simply building something doesn't equal success. Other factors are involved, such as potential need for capital, marketing etc.
I would not say ideas are worth zero -- at least not without qualifying/explaining that statement. [1] I believe it's more accurate to say ideas are worth very little -- usually much less than the idea's creator thinks it is -- relative to everything else needed for project success. And many ideas do get built out into existence, and flop, where we see that generally 90% of startups fail.
The confusion as I see it with this debate is "idea people" having the misconception that a great idea equals success, and only needs the product to be built. That's usually not the case. And the problem here is that there is zero risk in having an idea, but elevated risk in every other part of growing a potential business.
As to the importance of execution, well, you can have an average or sub-par project executed extremely well be very valuable and profitable, but an idea without any execution will always be worth zero no matter how great its potential.
I do believe ideas can have value. Highly valuable ideas are ones that are novel and provide great advantage upon execution in the marketplace. These are generally rare. I can only think of a couple in the tech space over the past decade: the page ranking model of Google, and the video sharing model of YouTube.
[1] An idea is worth zero in the dollar value sense because if the idea never leaves the brain of the creator to be introduced into the world it never introduces any value into the world, and remains only an idea.
I agree, my whole point is that the Idea cannot be separated from execution, and execution cannot be separated from idea. They both can be objectively measured - but they are linked.
Well, yes, I agree that every business started as an idea. Everyone needs a starting point to act on, and that's what ideas are, starting points. However, I could have an idea to open a donut shop, and turn that into a profitable business even though there is nothing revolutionary or novel about such an idea. So, yes, you need both, but the thing to realize is that ideas will vary greatly in how much value they can provide to a venture. And unfortunately the only way to find out how much is to do the hard work of executing on the idea.
If developers are so much more valuable than ideas - why isnt every single developer building something amazing?
I find this a horribly unfair comparison. One can easily sit and dream up 100 ideas in a day, but one can't develop 100 projects in a day. If one could do such effectively I'm sure that you would find many more developers reaping rewards from their actions. Success is often about a hit / miss ratio.
On the other hand developers can generate value fairly easily. Let's say a developer decides to go out and build websites for local businesses. Again, nothing revolutionary here, yet there is certainly value that can be created by executing and with near limitless potential. Execution is what pays dividends. And as one would expect, it's what is hardest.
>One can easily sit and dream up 100 ideas in a day, but one can't develop 100 projects in a day.
Exactly, so then - if that one idea - which the dev could put together using his skills were the billion dollar one - then the IDEA was what was so valuable. Not the fact that he had development skills.
I just cant believe that ideas are worthless at all. They are worth what you can make of them - but they are never worthless.
You can develop 100 projects, but you also cant develop 1 project without an idea behind it. And then, its the value of the idea, the resultant product or service that has value.
Billion dollar ideas which are novel and highly advantageous to execute on are very rare, and even then they require more than just having the idea. The founders of Google or YouTube, which could both be considered billion dollar idea/ventures, I'm sure will tell you making their businesses into successes was NOT a cakewalk. Things could have went (and did go) wrong along the way.
I just cant believe that ideas are worthless at all.
I've already said above I don't believe ideas are always totally worthless.
...but they are never worthless.
I disagree. I can generate a list of many totally worthless startup ideas fairly quickly.
You still seem to be placing a lot of value in ideas, as if they are the main thing that determines the success of a project. I fundamentally disagree with that, and as evidence of that most successful projects end up looking different than they did when they first started out. I also feel almost like you are suggesting developers are helpless until an "idea person" comes along. Again, I disagree with that. Anyone can have an idea, even great idea, including developers.
Because simply building something doesn't equal success. Other factors are involved, such as potential need for capital, marketing etc.
I would not say ideas are worth zero -- at least not without qualifying/explaining that statement. [1] I believe it's more accurate to say ideas are worth very little -- usually much less than the idea's creator thinks it is -- relative to everything else needed for project success. And many ideas do get built out into existence, and flop, where we see that generally 90% of startups fail.
The confusion as I see it with this debate is "idea people" having the misconception that a great idea equals success, and only needs the product to be built. That's usually not the case. And the problem here is that there is zero risk in having an idea, but elevated risk in every other part of growing a potential business.
As to the importance of execution, well, you can have an average or sub-par project executed extremely well be very valuable and profitable, but an idea without any execution will always be worth zero no matter how great its potential.
I do believe ideas can have value. Highly valuable ideas are ones that are novel and provide great advantage upon execution in the marketplace. These are generally rare. I can only think of a couple in the tech space over the past decade: the page ranking model of Google, and the video sharing model of YouTube.
[1] An idea is worth zero in the dollar value sense because if the idea never leaves the brain of the creator to be introduced into the world it never introduces any value into the world, and remains only an idea.