From the Archives: Getting Support – Why Ideas Fail

December 10th, 2008 • View Comments From the Archives
Tags: archives, From the Archives, startups

Another post from the archives – this one was inspired by another blogger as well as my startup work at the time, where I was feeling a little bit of a lack of support.

Ben Morrise makes a good point on his personal blog when he talks about what to do next regarding idea development – he identifies 5 things that you need to get an idea off the ground:

1. An idea – Obviously this is essential
2. Time – Time is a big factor. Mostly people can do anything if they have enough time.
3. Skills – Most people think up ideas that fall in line with the skill set they possess. It makes the tasks easier.
4. Money – In my experience, money is almost always required to do something worth while.
5. Support – This is something I don’t get and it makes projects harder.

In my comment, I pointed out how important the support factor is to this, and I wanted to expand on it a little bit more here. In my opinion, it’s actually fairly easy to fulfill steps 1 through 4 on this list – there exist lots of people with ideas, time, the skills to complete the idea, and at least the ability to make enough money to get their idea off of the ground – but the support factor is the key here. Without the support of family, friends and colleagues (to say nothing of the experts in the business your idea deals with), it’s way more difficult to move anything forward. Without this support, you have no sounding board for your ideas, no-one to give you suggestions or point out hurdles, no-one to motivate you when you’re feeling low about your idea, and no-one to celebrate your progress with. It’s enough to drive anyone away from what they’re doing, whether they’re strong or weak.

That’s why it’s so important to try to support those around you who have taken a risk and are trying to go after an idea they have – you may think that their idea isn’t feasible, or that it has significant flaws, but that’s where you can help, by trying to prod them past hurdles, or to help them adapt their idea to work.

After all, wouldn’t you want the same thing?