A lot of us are chasing the next big thing and trying to come up with the next big idea. We’d love to start the next Uber or Facebook or Google and change the world (while make just a couple of dollars in the process). We’d love to find that idea that turns out to be huge that we can actually implement.
Alas, most big ideas are worth exactly as much as they cost to come up with: nothing. Big ideas are much like dreams – they occupy a lot of our time but ultimately don’t let anywhere. That dream with Napolean riding a unicorn makes for some funny anecdotes with friends but ultimately isn’t going to make you $3,000. The dream of Uber-for-Real-Estate sounds great but is essentially meaningless without a realized platform around it.
What is often missed in the chase for the next big idea is that the Ubers of the world may seem like they are built around a single simple idea, they are actually built around lots of smaller ideas that point toward a single end goal. Uber is really 1) Non-professional drivers, 2) call a car from anywhere, 3) navigation built in, 4) no cash required, 5) knowledge of peak demand, 6) car-to-passenger not passenger-to-car, 7) works the same everywhere, 8) one-click travel. That’s a lot of little ideas that individually make up a piece of Uber. None of the are Uber but all of them are required for it to be what it is.
When you get that next big idea, remember to break it down and find all the smaller ideas it needs in order to become real.