I’ve Got An Idea!!! Now What?
May 28, 2009
You’re a college student or a fresh college graduate. Maybe you’re $30,000 in debt to Wells Fargo for the last 4-5 years (10 in my case) of your life. Maybe you’re doing an internship while you wait to graduate, or maybe you don’t even know how to start looking for a job. And then it hits you.
You get an idea!
Now what?
Write-Forget-Review/Refine
WRITE IT DOWN. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a really great idea, and not bothered writing it down because I thought it was that good. After twenty minutes I can’t even remember that I had an idea, let alone remember what it was about. I keep a notebook with me at all times so that when I have an idea I can write it down and flesh it out (could be anything from just a few words to several pages of flowcharts and sketches). I never spend more than an hour on an idea initially.
Forget: Walk away. Don’t think about it too much. Your subconscious will take over and do the thinking while you concentrate on other things.
Review/Refine: After a few weeks, come back to it. If it still sounds like a good idea to you, then keep going. If not, leave it in your notebook and review it again in a few weeks.
This is also where your friends come in handy. Run the idea past them and have them shoot holes in it. This is probably the most important part. Sometimes you get so fixated on an idea that you don’t see the obvious (or not so obvious) holes.
Only once you’ve done the Write-Forget-Review/Refine process a few times (minimum of 3 times per idea), you’ll then be ready to start working on a business plan, talking to investors, and getting started.
