Idea worth pursuing?

How do you know which idea is worth pursuing as a business/ initiative/ project? Which idea will make money and which one will just become a wasted effort? Here are some anchors to help you decide:

Any accountant /MBA text book will tell you see what is the Return on investment ( ROI) ?   Wrong.  You might know by now that no great world changing ideas/businesses have come out of a spreadsheet. In fact the other way around. Once creatives are taken over by spreadsheet folks in a firm, innovation dies a quick death, products become mediocre and generally there is business atrophy.

Why does this happen?

When you start with money making in mind, you tend to lose out/deprioritize many things such as 

-      Am I solving a critical problem significantly better than others are doing today?

-      Is the customer experience top notch in what I am building? Am I taking out all the friction that exists today?

-      Have I switched off all conventional rules of this business ? Am I really disrupting/re-imagining the business model to make things better for the customer along the entire journey?

-      Am I aware that I might not have all the answers today? Do I understand that my ability to pivot down the road is more important than I get it right on paper right now?

-      Do I have the best possible team that thinks similarly? 

-      Do I have conviction/passion around this idea that it might change the world ?

It is difficult in today’s world to have an idea that none had before. iPhone wasn’t the first smart phone nor ipod was the first portable music player. Google wasn’t the first search engine and neither was facebook the first social platform. Look up any idea like hotel booking and you will find 1000s of apps that do similar things.

It is more important to be following the above approach than looking for a ‘First in the world’ idea. 

How do you then validate your idea? Should you ask your friends/loved ones or ask some accountants? Should you check online? Do they ‘see’ what you see ? Do they share your passion/conviction on changing the world?

Ultimately let your conviction/passion be the guide to that ‘world changing idea!’ . Do not worry about money. You will realize that its one of the consequences and not the core driver.