Would you rather have brains, guts, creativity, and a set of really big ideas – or would you rather posses none of that but have a bank account with lots of zeros following the first number? Experience shows that with the initial set of qualities in place, your Big Idea can beat down the deepest of pockets like David slew Goliath. If history shows us one thing, it’s that innovation usually takes the day. When it comes down to it, it’s the little guy who comes on the scene with a great idea that starts taking market share away from the industry giants, who have a tendency to become complacent, afraid to take chances. Money is no longer the issue but motivation is.
Microsoft? Started by a college dropout from middle-class parents. Wal-mart? A genteel Arkansas farmer with a general store and dream to bring low prices to the world. Of course, at some point along the way, David becomes Goliath, and finds himself fending off attacks from the next kid on the block with great ideas and the internal drive to sleep four hours a night for years on end, fueled by the over-riding desire to bring his dream to fruition.
But the whole point of this is that you should never, ever allow a lack of resources to stand between you and your great idea. The world wants your idea. The world needs your idea. The fact that you have a negative balance in your checking account matters not. You’re creative right? Figure out a way to beg or borrow the finances necessary to bootstrap your business into being. We would suggest that you should leave stealing out of the equation because that simply isn’t cool.
How do you know if your idea is big enough? Honestly, there’s no barometer for that except the opinion of the consumer, and the only way you get their input is to get the product or service in front of them. Back to the Microsoft example. Before Bill Gates unleashed Windows on the world and ushered in the era of personal computing through a graphically based interface, computer users were university and military nerds writing programs in languages like FORTRAN, COBOL, and BASIC, and believe us, it wasn’t pretty.
Look at us now. All from one simple idea that every person should have a computer.
The Creating Wealth Team
Flickr / ieshraq
