Earlier this month, I turned to the wisdom of Dragons’ Den to ask whether long-term viability was really all that important in determining the success of a company. Today, I turn back to Dragons’ Den for yet another tidbit of wisdom: can you have too many ideas?
The precise nature of the business being pitched to the dragons escapes me at the moment, but the general reaction from Kevin O’Leary was that the business was filled with too many disjointed ideas with no sensible way to connect them all. His biggest advice to the young entrepreneur: you need focus. O’Leary adamantly stated that the young man in the TV studio had far too many ideas floating around in his head and these were clouding his judgement.
It’s almost ironic. There are so many young entrepreneurs with a great set of skills and more than enough drive, but they lack any sensible ideas that can translate into a profitable business. On the flip side, there’s this other guy who has far too many ideas, but not nearly enough focus or follow-through to see the ideas bear any fruit. It’s like digging the hole and planting the seed, but neglecting to water the plant from then forward.
The concept of having “too much” is anything but novel. We have already seen how having too much information can paralyze you with indecision. We already recognize that being a jack of all trades but a master of none likely won’t get you very far. When you have too many ideas, your judgement loses its clarity. You become distracted with your other ideas.
On the one hand, you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. On the other hand, having half an egg in far too many baskets isn’t exactly useful either. In this way, it may be best to focus your efforts on just one or two projects and see them through to completion. Do one thing very well rather than do many things with mediocrity.
This doesn’t mean that you should discard those wonderful ideas floating around your head; you just have to find another way to explore them. You could delay them for later development. You could outsource them to other people. You could even sell your ideas to the highest bidder… how’s that for an idea?
Do one thing very well rather than do many things with mediocrity.
Ever see Handyman ad’s or vans? 20 or 30 things listed that they can do, but they can’t do anything well. Same with the big name AV companies that defined the field as it was growing. McAfee and Symantec have become bloated, mediocre handymen.
But, I think you can manage too many ideas in a many different ways and you mentioned a few. I have, and still do use the paper and pen method. I write down one idea on one sheet of paper. I throw those ideas out on the table, scan them and organize them into Now, Maybe and Later piles.
The Later pile gets filed to never be seen again, while the Maybe pile sits on a basket next to the computer in the bedroom. The Now pile gets sorted again into 3 piles, but the Now pile can only have 2 items in it. I then file the Later pile, add the Maybe’s to the already created Maybe pile. I take the 2 Now ideas and decide on one main thing to concentrate on as my focus and one to do as a project.
While this seems to be a lot of work, it only takes a few minutes.
Interestingly I was reading something else in my RSS reader and came across this quote that tends toward not having only one idea:
“The dangerous man is the one who has only one idea, because then he’ll fight and die for it.” ~ Francis Crick
Living dangerously (by fighting for that one idea or belief) is better than not living life as if everyday is our last!
Earlier on in life, I used to try to juggle too many balls. But once I realized I was dropping the balls far too often, I decided to streamline and concentrate on one path, and maybe start a second one as something to fall back on, should the first fail. I have to say that was a good decision that I made. Not saying that is the case with everyone. Many people can and have managed to juggle many balls with great success but I just couldn’t, and it’s better if you come to terms with that sooner rather than later.
yeah , to many things going on in your mind can be un-productive