Finding Business Ideas: Beyond the Eureka Moment

Coming up with business ideas is both a science and an art.

We usually think that all great businesses came from a grandiose idea that an entrepreneur had while in the shower or something similar. The reality is quite different.

Ideas are usually just fire-starters to get someone who is already impatient to get going. They are motivation with a time limit that usually dies down within a few days but can last as long as launching a product. At some point in time, usually early in the process, motivation from the idea runs out and it’s push-through from there. Pushing through involves a bit of encouragement from others, and a lot of self-convincing that it’ll work out in the end.

Is all this to say that ideas are not important for a business? No. On the contrary, ideas are the first piece in a long chain of events that will eventually turn into a business. But companies are commonly not based on one idea alone, but rather out of tens or hundreds of nuggets, big and small, that mash-up onto a business at some point.

So, what's the point of having an idea if it's not going to become a business? The point is not really having an idea; the point is having, or rather, finding many ideas.

The point is in becoming aware of what's going on around us; the annoyances and the opportunities. It's flipping on a switch in our heads to not only notice but to document continuously until, at some point, some of those merge together.

In my next post, I will explore a few ways to have, find and gather ideas.