Curious, What Turned Your Idea Into Action?
I'm Curious.
The most common problem I see with Ideas is that they don't go anywhere. I've been guilty of that myself. Even incredible ideas can go nowhere. What makes the difference? What guidance would you give? How does an idea become something?
With my first company I was naive and therefor had no idea about the daunting amount of work and worries that lie ahead. I think it helped. I just plowed ahead each day one at a time and discovered the next steps as I moved forward.
Is the difference between an Idea that doesn't go anywhere and one that gains momentum a product of the character of the person behind the idea or is it something else? How can a person become someone who follows through and takes action?
Is it because people don't know what to do when they have an idea? What are the first steps you took? I'm talking about the very first steps that translated an idea into momentum. So much advice is about the journey but I'm talking about the very first steps. Are there actions that form a template or is it too complicated to define?
Is it because people with great ideas are afraid to share because of worry about the idea being stolen? How would you recommend a person navigate this concern? Would you go full out and just make it happen? Or would you be much more cautious?
Is it because of money? Are people thinking of lawyers, incorporating, patents, paying a team, and all of the other costs? Does this block progress? What did you do?
Perhaps the problem is that there is too much focus on the problems and fears instead of the baby steps that add up to something bigger. Is the feeling of being overwhelmed stopping people?
Here at IndieHackers we have a phenomenal community of founders. What quick advice would you give to help someone turn an idea into action?
For me it started off as something to keep me entertained and to hack on, to be honest.
Only after a couple of weeks/months did it begin to take shape and resemble a product.
... and many more
I think all of this is related to if you have the desire to be an entrepreneur, or you feel okay with working for someone else the rest of your life.
I'm still in the transitioning phase (quit my job 5 months ago), but to me this was most important:
Thanks for the thoughtful feedback!
In my case, it was the deep desire to not be answerable to a boss. Once I had some savings, I quit.
The idea came later.
Haha! Yes, that's a great point and I sure agree.
To refine the question a bit:
You start with an idea, like so many people who don't ever make progress, but you are different in that you developed momentum. How do people go from standstill to momentum?
TLDR; I think there is not 1-way to. I think it is trial & error of trying new things through iteration, and measuring the progress and find out "what works".
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I think the continuous iteration and measuring the progress is the most important. Very little startups starts with 1000+ customers on day 1, most of us don't have a big audience at first (through social channels for example), but that is not something that must hold you back - that is the challenge.
For example:
I launched my app 1 week ago and gained momentum, but that was through startup page submissions and my posts at social channels.
Now the amount of visitors to my website is decreasing, but to me that doesn't matter. What matters is that the conversion rate after the first feedback round increased. This is the real progress to focus on I think.
The thing to do from there, is to keep iterating to increase the conversion rate and to find the people who need the product. Finding those people is the hardest part, but also the part that is completely new to me (and to every startup who just launched).
But that is the fun part: the learning and the journey towards this new area you have never experienced.
The journey to a new experience was both scary and exciting for me. The bigger and faster that things grow the crazier the journey. It's exhilarating! Best of luck to you!
Thank you very much!
Prospect of early retirement. Therefore, I’m putting my personal time developing my product (Company 360 app) with ultimate goal of relaxing and doing nothing.