Ideas are Easy, Execution is the Art (originally published 8.4.2014)

I’ve been running my own personal incubator since 2005. During that time, almost any conversation that mentioned the word “incubator” would lead to someone saying, “I have an idea for you”.

My thoughts around that are always the same; Ideas are easy, execution is the art.

As a creator of my own companies, there are no shortage of ideas I have. I can look around and find ideas from everyday life on a constant basis.

Often, I may feel like a comedian who gains his source of jokes from encounters he sees throughout the day.

However, with each idea comes the evaluation of is it even a business? Could you build a team around it. Would someone even pay for your product/service/idea? Is it a company or a business? What would it take to bring the idea to market; financing, talent, programming, distribution, marketing, timing, etc?

Just having the idea is indeed the easiest part. It’s how you execute against the idea that will separate the doer’s from the dreamer’s.

The actual definition of “execution”, to carry out or put into effect (a plan, order, or course of action), puts into account your just getting started.

Just like any good battle plan it helps to know what direction you’re going, what you want the outcome to be, what type’s of people you think it would take to be successful.

Execution is all about taking the steps moving forward.

I try not to be snarky, but at times I find myself wanting to ask the following question when someone says I have an idea; “Great, so what have you done about it?”.

The few times I have, the person looks at me cross eyed and states they’ve done nothing as it was just an idea.

It’s easy to dream, it’s easy to want others to do the work, it’s easy to have an idea. It’s the execution that is the art.