draft
Generally
speaking when I discuss an idea with someone, they invariably say
“someone has already done it” with the implication that it would
be a mistake for me to spend one second thinking about doing such a
product or proving the idea.
Sadly,
I have often found the following problems with their advice.
1.
It turns out that someone has not already done it.
2.
It turns out that even if they have, which they havent, doing it the
way I have outlined makes excellent sense.
3.
There are many, many examples of people being second or third to
market and being *very* successful at it.
4.
In all cases I am aware of, had I proceeded with my idea, and all
that entailed, at the very worst I would have had an excellent
working example of some of the ideas and quality of work and that
would have been extremely worthwhile. In other words, at the very
least, it would have been good marketing.
So
why do I bother asking other people and being discouraged? The
reasons are sadly very simple. First, lack of faith in myself.
Second, the hope that someone would be willing to work on something
with me, which they never want to do. They just want to be negative.
They can't help it, they have their own problems.
Can
I learn from my mistakes here? It isnt clear, this might actually be
a character flaw. And as we all know, how many psychaitrists are
needed to change a lightbulb? Only one but the lightbulb has to
sincerely want to change.
The
other problem is doing anything like a product or startup is hard.
Much harder than people who have never done one realize. And without
financing it can be nearly impossible unless one is very clever, in
the same way someone who makes an excellent low budget movie has to
be clever. And it is incredibly hard work.
