I’m always surprised to see how many people out there are impressed by ideas alone. People often forget just how useless an idea is without the sweat, courage and brains needed to execute them. I think Peter Drucker said it best when he said, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” Often, though, people like to see these intangible things turned into hard numbers. Derek Sivers from O’Reilly has come up with a pretty simple formula to help the laymen find the worth of their idea in conjunction with their execution:
To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.
Explanation:
AWFUL IDEA = -1
WEAK IDEA = 1
SO-SO IDEA = 5
GOOD IDEA = 10
GREAT IDEA = 15BRILLIANT IDEA = 20
NO EXECUTION = $1
WEAK EXECUTION = $1000
SO-SO- EXECUTION = $10,000
GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000
GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000
BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000To make a business, you need to multiply the two.
The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.
That’s why I don’t want to hear people’s ideas. I’m not interested until I see their execution.
For those that are interested, here are a couple other posts on ideas and execution.
David Allen on Idea Creation and Execution — David Allen explains how to he generates and then executes his ideas.
It’s Not the Idea. It’s the Execution — “But what really matters is the execution and the quality of the team, something the majority of those dotcoms lacked in.”
Ideas — And in case you’re in the camp that can’t come up with an idea, here are a hundred or so ideas generated by middle and high school students to start the day. My personal favorites — butt wiping toilets and oxygen tanks so dogs can go diving.
And did you thought of swapping the values? Let’s see what I mean, make it this way:
AWFUL IDEA = $1 WEAK IDEA = $1000 SO-SO IDEA = $10,000 GOOD IDEA = $100,000 GREAT IDEA = $1,000,000 BRILLIANT IDEA = $10,000,000
NO EXECUTION = -1 WEAK EXECUTION = 1 SO-SO- EXECUTION = 5 GOOD EXECUTION = 10 GREAT EXECUTION = 15 BRILLIANT EXECUTION = 20
Every idea is worth something. But it all depends on the way it is executed, so the multiplier should be the EXECUTION value. Eh? :)
Interesting thought Martin, but wouldn’t that make a brilliant idea with no execution worth $-10,000,000? Without execution, a the smarter your idea, the more you pay. Isn’t a dumb idea or a great idea worth about the same if you do nothing with it?