Applying Action & The Importance of Ideas
By: Mitchell Pousson Ii
Tags: Blog, Ideas, Product Management, Technology, Software Development

How do we start taking action on our ideas?

Mitchell D. Pousson II / October 02, 2020

We’ve all been there.

You’re out with a couple of close friends finishing what you assumed to be the last drink of the night when you hear the phrase “I’ve actually got this idea for an app that would…”

The benevolent spark quickly flames into a chorus of other app ideas as the rest of the group begins chiming in.

Before you know it, you’re ordering another beer — maybe even adding in a collective round of shots to keep the pace of the conversation flowing.

By the end of the night, you and a couple of other future innovators are now newly-wed business partners, vowing to make sure the rubber hits the road and the product gets made.

You wake up and all that’s erased.

Chug some water, then some coffee, and get back to the important stuff like making phone calls and writing emails.

No one follows up.

No action is taken.

The thought occurs that “maybe we’ll make some more progress next weekend when we all go out again.”

Unfortunately, this is typically the fashion that ideas come to live and die by.

All talk, No Walk.

In the words of Peter F. Drucker, author of The Effective Executive:

“The greatest wisdom not applied to action and behavior is meaningless data.”

So how do we start taking action on our ideas?

I wish I had the answer.

Unfortunately, all I can supply are relevant suggestions from the same google searches you will or have already entertained.

With that said, Tyler and I love using analogies to communicate our often times lofty and abstract ideas while Jerodis and Zach are more concrete thinkers who help us anchor the ship. If you’re in the same the boat as the latter, feel free to stop reading now.

But…for our next blog, we want to talk about the concept of working with the garage door open, so we thought we’d share a brain-dump from our private slack channel:

We’re freezing to death in the cold reality of jobs we hate without realizing we’re sitting on a bed of starter logs surrounded by kerosene soaked kindling under a constant barrage of sparks, ready to light a fire as soon as we decide to fan the flame just a little bit longer.

The problem is — as soon as the initial inspiration wears off, we stop tending to the process of tuning the spark into a life-saving fire.

Sparks often go dark before they really catch, but that’s normal in the process of starting a fire. The patience to continue working even after the initial light fades is the key to achieving the autonomy you seek.

Unfortunately in our instant-gratification fueled world, very few stick with anything long enough to turn a potential idea or concept into a sustainable solution.

This is especially true when the bright orange glimmer of hope has dissipated, leaving behind only the eye burning smoke signifying what looks to be the end of your short-lived dreams.

On top of the immediate pain and discouragement stemming from the extinguished fire, you’re often surrounded by a shower of more-promising new, bright, and shiny sparks that offer the renewed hope of an easy path toward success.

But chasing these sparks resembles scuba diving into a kiddy pool, a venture that is far less scary than a real dive but rarely worth the time or money.

We have too much of too little, and should instead focus on less of more. Go deeper, don’t stop when the spark withers dim. It could be on the verge of lighting the fire that saves your life.

Whatever you choose to do, pick a flame and fan it.

Sparks alone will never keep you warm.

This is how we help ordinary people build extraordinary products.