How To Come Up With The Perfect Business Idea and Execute It
The Mistake We All Make
Did you know 90% of Medium readers are aspiring entrepreneurs? Not really, I just made that up.
But it’s safe to say, seeing that you are on this platform you are seeking to expand your knowledge in the hopes of developing professionally and personally.
This article is going to give you an actionable means to initiate real change within yourself and help you achieve your goals.
There are a many forms of success and means of working towards your goals. Perhaps you want to improve your health, develop some skills, learn how to launch a business, start a Youtube channel, get some new ideas and learn a magical hack which will trigger the light bulb moment and propel you or your business all the way to success.
I get your intentions, I am guilty of it myself, but there is a reason why you should step away from that mindset. To show you why, I am going to tell you a bit about Netflix.
The Story of Netflix
Netflix is one of the most successful streaming services to date and back in September of 2018 I went to a seminar called the ‘The Story of Netflix’ hosted by the Co-founder himself, Marc Randolph.
This has easily been the best seminar I have ever been to, why?…Because of one simple line.
A good friend of mine, Jesse Kerema managed to secure a free ticket for me to attend the event in one of Sydney’s most beautiful theatres, the Sydney State Theatre.
Jesse was working the event so he said he’d joing me halfway through the talk. Solo, I walked confidently with the crisp glossy ticket in hand.I entered through the grand antique doors of the foyer into the theatre, whilst passing several sets of staff telling them I was in Row B they ushered me all the way to the second-row.
Wow, my mate really gave me the royal treatment. Here I was, second row in a prestigious theatre about to listen to one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time.
There was something different about everyone in these first two rows. The men were dressed in the finest suits I had ever seen and the women were dressed so elegantly you would expect to see them in The Great Gatsby.
There I was a twenty year old kid with jeans and a flannel button up, getting dirty glances from the others sitting around me.
The seat next to me, the one I assumed Jesse was going to sit in got taken by one of these very affluent and intimidating individuals.
“Weird, I guess Jesse isn’t joining me”, I thought to myself. About ten minutes later I heard a disgruntled individual ranting to event staff about not finding his seat, then they left to go resolve the issue.
Twenty minutes later I had an epiphany and a massive wave washed over me, instantly making me feel nauseated…I wasn’t sitting in the regular ticket seats.
My hands trembling I took out the ticket and looked, I wasn’t supposed to be in Section A row B , I was supposed to be in Section J row B. I was sitting in the $500 ultra-exclusive VIP seats, and I had unknowingly taken that disgruntled guy’s place.
The instant intermission begun I was out of there. I found my way to Jesse sitting in section J row B, it was all the way on the second floor and miles away from the stage. Oops!
Whilst I spent the entire of the first half of the seminar feeling distressed about my predicament. I finally received the secret ingredient holding me back from all of my endeavours.
The secret ingredient, the hack I was always looking for, the one thing stopping me from achieving my goals was this…
“The perfect idea doesn’t exist” -Marc Randolph
Building The Perfect Idea
Looking at successful businesses and even influencers we say to ourselves, “What a great (or simple idea), I wish I came up with that”.
Looking at traditional movie rentals, Netflix seems like such a logical progression. What you might not no, Is it took them a lot of trial and error to build the business it is today.
It started as a movie rental service that sent dvds in the post. With time they realised this model wasn’t ideal and needed more work, and eventually with a lot of adjustments…their initial idea was transformed into something entirely different.
By waiting for the perfect actionable actionable formula, you are creating a barrier to your own success. Instead you want to create your own formula.
Three examples of building your winning formula.
The following are just examples used to demonstrate this concept, the idea of creating a formula as opposed to finding one extends to every goal within every industry.
- Health and Fitness
We see the latest training program, jump on it a for a few weeks or maybe even months,we don’t get the results that were hoping for and then switch to a new program.
By sporadically altering programs you are starting from scratch every single time. Instead, you need to stick to one program and tweak it over time by changing the independent variables, i.e. Weight lifted, reps and sets, rest periods and adding or removing exercises.
If you start with program x, and you notice you are really struggling with a particular exercise or conversely it is too easy, then what you want to do is keep everything that is feeling right and tweak the exercise to increase or decrease the intensity accordingly. Keeping the base program the same and tweaking it over time, and experimenting with an odd variable you are cultivating the perfect program for you.
2. Content Creation
For a very long time I toiled with the idea of creating content. I spent years waiting for the perfect idea for my niche and crazy ideas that would go viral.
All this did, was set me back several years of growth and development.
What you want to do, is instead of waiting for an idea to come along. Just start today and stop comparing yourself to the best in the world. They didn’t start out the best, they became the best.
If you scroll back through any of the biggest Youtuber’s channels (i.e. Pewdie Pie, Mr Beast, Logan Paul, Casey Neistat, James Charles) you will notice one thing about their videos, they sucked!
As you scroll along from their inception, you will see their growth. They experimented with content and scheduling, they had videos that flopped and videos that went viral. With all this trial and error they were able to create a formula that worked for them.
So if creating content is something you are interested in, remember, Stop comparing yourself to the best!
3. Entrepreneurship
Being an entrepreneur or digital nomad is the modern day “American Dream” . Being financially independent, having control over your work life balance, and if you really hit the jackpot…being able to work remotely, are the driving force behind most peoples thirst for becoming successful entrepreneurs.
We do online courses, read books like “Think and Grow Rich” and “The 4 Hour Work Week”, listen to podcasts, all whilst waiting for the right idea or the courage to act upon it.
Despite having the lust for the entrepreneurial life and all these resources to aid in the journey, everyone is so focused on the end goal of ‘perfection’ that they never even begin the journey because they fear the process.
One of my favourite examples of trial and error is with Kellogs Cornflakes. In 1894 Medical Superintendent John Kellogg was trying to cook wheat. After accidentally leaving the wheat to boil for too long it turned into a dough. They later found out they could roll out the dough and bake it into the Cornflakes we know today. Here, we have a medical professional who through experimentation and human error created one of the most popular cereals ever.
Just like Marc Randolph with Netflix, you need to act on your idea today. By starting today and learning from your mistakes you will know how to improve for tomorrow. By applying the lessons of today to tomorrow, over time the growth will compound, you will begin cultivating the perfect formula and eventually your idea will grow into something brilliant.
Maybe your idea manifests exactly as you envisioned, or maybe it is far from what you ever imagined. Either way, it is there a testament to your courage in taking the leap.
Stop buying into these instant success hacks. Stop waiting for the perfect idea. Start building your own formula!
I hope you enjoyed this article. Please show your support by leaving some claps and I would love to hear your feedback in the comments…This helps me create a strong formula and deliver better content for you.
