Some more thoughts on “Big Ideas.”

The big idea behind a startup has to be something that you and others can be quickly excited about. The acceptance and understanding of new ideas are not always cerebral or analytical. Behind almost every new big idea, however,is excitement and emotion. It needs to be about changing the way things are or will be in the future. It is about getting people so excited about what the product or service does that they join you and your band of excited promoters. Promoting a new and different way to do something has to stir others and cause them to want to know more and try it out. People need to understand the big idea very quickly. Remember: big ideas can come from solutions that are simple and easy to grasp. The paper clip and sticky note pads were pretty simple ideas that helped change the way businesses and consumers operated. There are millions of such examples behind successful businesses and product ideas.

Consider the little idea born on the campus of Harvard University to put the photos of incoming students, which were printed in booklets to help students get to know one another, online, making the booklet interactive. Kind of like a “face book.” That simple idea, conceived by Mark Zuckerberg, his Harvard roommates, and some fellow computer science students has grown from its simple use on a college campus to over five hundred million (and counting) registered Facebook users. It has become a way to communicate anytime, anywhere, with virtually anyone. For many users today it is their only way to communicate. Facebook has become part of everyday business and personal life. That’s a big idea.

Big ideas do not have to be complicated. In fact quite often just the opposite is true. This does not mean that more complicated solutions borne in labs or scientific clinical trials cannot be a big idea. There are examples of those kinds of big ideas in cell phones, personal computers and handheld devices, the Internet, erectile dysfunction medicines and so on. Take the Internet alone as an example. How it all works is not all that well understood by the majority of those who use it. But only a few years ago, the big idea of electronic mail (e-mail) and the benefit of instantaneous communications and the exchange of written communications at no cost made the Internet a household word to everyone. So improvements on how we use things or get things done can also grow into big ideas.

Again I ask the question, “What’s the big idea behind the company?” If there isn’t a good answer then maybe the idea isn’t big enough, which might indicate that the business won’t be the great success you want it to be. This does not mean that your company idea isn’t a good one or won’t lead to a successful company. But without that special big idea, your company may not become that huge success that many would-be entrepreneurs believe is in the DNA of every clever idea or startup.

When we look back on entrepreneurs in history we can see one of the major shifts at the heart of big idea trends. Years ago entrepreneurs came largely out of the scientific world, and their big ideas were borne through their inventions. They invented things that never existed before. They invented the light bulb, radio, telephone, phonograph, airplane, plow, transistor, sewing machine, firearms, and dynamite. Then there was a wave of inventions and innovations that introduced new processes in manufacturing and production.

When we recognize successful entrepreneurs today, there is an even bigger group that comes from innovation more than invention. Our service-oriented, information-rich, Internet connected, wireless society has provided a different breed of entrepreneurs. Today many individuals could not survive without eBay, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter unheard of a few years ago.

Today in the iPhone world we live in there seems to be an “app” for everything, until you run across a new one and you ask yourself; “Why didn’t I think of that?” or worse yet, “Why didn’t I act when I had that idea?”

Today the impact of innovation comes quicker and the means to take a big innovative idea to market are easier than ever before because of the technology and tools entrepreneurs have created for new entrepreneurs to use.

Big ideas can become big successes even faster than it has previously taken. So take that big idea and run with it.