Today I had an conversation with a staff member who has a big idea and is pondering the whole side of life in what its like to have a big idea, and how to see it go out there in the big crazy world. His idea isn’t connected to his daily life at Ohio State, but he still wanted help, connections and direction. So we rambled a bit about aspects of the big idea and he went through the motions of patent, fear of people taking the idea, how to make a story of the idea, how to get traction on the idea how to make the thing live and be safe, but awesome and so on. It was like going through all the ranges of motion when it comes to ideas. Fear, doubt, joy, awesomeness, mastery, more fear, delusion, more fear, hope, etc..
We touched alot of points in 15 minutes.
I don’t like to talk people out of whatever they want to do, I just try and shed light based on experience, and more so i try to align action with the direction they want to go in. Some of my friends feel I’m too soft on folks, but what they don’t realize that i’m always thinking speed, and i think forcing my opinion to him isn’t a speed increase, because he doesn’t own those thoughts, its a temporary fix that for a short term may work but in end, he’ll lose speed if he doesn’t own his own data, his own gut on what to do next. Empowering people is far more powerful.
One common theme in many of these conversations is the notion that you’re not alone with a big idea in todays world. This is not to wig out, its to remind you that we’re in a highly competitive idea space today and that everyone is inventing. Its those with crisp and tasty, digestible narratives combined with great tech and vision of what is to be next and the footing and foundation to build from, its those ideas that foster tomorrow, its those ideas that I see get in motion, get the holy grail of traction, savor the cup of momentum.
At one point in the conversation we talked about the classic argument of NDA’s and investors. And ya know investors are seeing this photo up here in my mind. When it comes to them seeking out tech, yes they value the NDA, but there is no shortage of people at their front door with ideas. The big idea or debate isnt over NDA’s, paperwork is the last thing that should be on your mind. You should be working and crafting that narrative. You want great investment? MAKE them come to you. You should never be in line. Being in line is the first mistake. Now thats a classic cocky sense, but I never want techs and ideas i work on to be dependent on that line. I want to be far ahead of that, I want the proof that we matter, the narrative is crisp, the story is buzz worthy and the investors come to me.
Not all ideas can do that, but the only thing that stands in their way is rarely ever the core idea, its almost always hustle. How bad do you want your big idea to succeed? For this guy, he’s mostly in the way of the big idea, all those human aspects, fear, doubt, etc, real? Not really, the biggest thing he’s got to do is get out of the way, apply hustle, craft story and own. GO!!