Value Instead of a Great Idea

As an #entrepreneur, thinking you have a #greatidea for your #startup may lead you to failure.

Why?

Be honest with yourself: if you feel great as a direct result of thinking your #idea is a great one, then you're in trouble. You're in love with your idea without getting to know it for real: the actual value it has (not may have) on other's people life.

An idea by itself does not create value. Instead, it creates another much worse thing: an illusion of value. Your dream makes you feel great, then you will turn to your family and friends whom you subconsciously trust not to hurt your feelings. Even strangers are usually polite when they sense you put your ego on the line, together with telling them about your dream.

For the same reason, people are digging for compliments on social media, you're using your great idea to feel good about yourself, not in order to bring value.

By doing that, you demotivate yourself to go and #validateyouridea. The process of validating your idea must bring up aspects of it that make the initial idea look worse, not that great anymore.

In that context, things must get worse emotionally before they become better. For an idea to become more realistic it has to evolve.

The next step after thinking about your idea and before anything else (definitely not before writing a business plan) is customer discovery.