How do you fight the "idea worthiness" paralysis?
No, this is not about talking to potential customers.
Idea worthiness paralysis is that phase where you can't come up with ideas that your cynical self deems worthy of pursuing, and shutting down almost everything.
Sometimes I wish I were once again young and careless, building stuff "just because". But now, busier and (only supposedly) wiser, the fear of wasting time stops me from trying new businesses.
While I don't refrain myself to test new stuff (you never stop learning), I just never find the spark to continue towards a side business, as my cynical self is now fully trained in finding all the reasons "why this won't work".
Any suggestions?
I think that we make it too complicated. We try to pretend that if we just wait long enough and think about it deeply enough then we'll find that perfect idea. That idea that ticks all checkboxes: people need it, will pay for it, minimal competition, you bring something unique to the table, low risk, etc.
The truth is that you can't predict which idea will really work. You can't "think" yourself into a successful business. You have to try it and see. Even experienced entrepreneurs don't know what will work... they just know which ideas have a higher chance of succeeding.
Instead, you should come up with the best idea you can considering what you know right now and just roll with it. In a year you'll either have a successful side-business or you'll have learnt a lot. Then you repeat the process: pick the best idea you have at that time (now they will be better because you have more experience) and roll with it.
As long as you don't stop you'll make it eventually.
thank you, I understand. It's just very difficult to interiorize it to a point where you can progress without letting doubts win you over.
What I've noticed from reading pretty much every Indie Hackers interview is that most good businesses start out as bad ideas.
Either the founder pivots an initial bad idea to a much better one (ConvertKit, etc.), or working on a bad idea leads the founder to uncover a need that becomes a good idea (BareMetrics, etc.).
Far fewer founders featured on Indie Hackers pick a great idea out of the gate that works perfectly.
The evidence seems to suggest that working on a bad idea is more likely to lead to success than waiting for a good idea.
Hope that makes sense! (BTW, I could relate to a lot of what you said, and I'm still trying to internalise this advice).
thank you, makes sense! I'll try to work on it.
It's really customers who decide what idea is good, so you are in a sense actually the person least qualified to decide if a particular idea is worthy. Since you haven't built anything yet, why not just ask your target demographic what they think of the idea?
Taking my own advice, I'm in the middle of cold emailing my favorite content creators to ask if they would be interested in a relevance-based content reposter idea that I've been developing.
That's a really great way of putting it!
I try to tell myself to build it anyway. That way I'll get into the process of building a product and see first hand what are the challenges. So that maybe next time it will get better...
Maybe next time before you start into the cynical pessimistic spiral stop and systematically apply the method of "6 thinking hats" for every next idea
This allows you to be critical - so your cynical self is satisfied but you are also forced to think positive and May be able to have a rational decision afterwards.
Allow for a positive spark to co exist and at least have a chance.
Does this make sense?
Aim to prove (to yourself) whether an idea is of interest (to other people). Make protypes - on paper, with slides/PowerPoint, or InVision. Then test it out on people, even if that means people you know at first..
I personally find it useful to write a list of features out, either as a list grouped by "epics" or strategic themes, or in ZenHub (which is free). This process helps me visualise whether the road to MVP and a product is worthwhile.
In short, get the idea out of your system. Then give yourself a weekend or a week to prove your cynical self wrong.
The truth is maybe none of the ideas have been exciting enough for you to pursue? If you're going to work on something, you can expect to be at it for years and need to be obsessive and passionate about the problem at hand. Can you talk about the idea excitedly for hours on end? Can you get others excited just because you're excited? Those are all the signs that you've found something you deeply care about. Otherwise you won't be able to persevere when the times get really hard, you have to survive long enough to truly crack the problem and see success.
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