Big companies like Apple, super successful websites like Facebook and bestsellers like The 4-Hour Workweek have one thing in common: They start with a million dollar idea.
The big question is: How did your creators come up with these ideas? Did they sit around waiting for an inspiring flash or a mystical lucky charm?
The answer is: spontaneity and luck had little to do with it.
In this article, we’ll take a quick look at 20 proven techniques that some of the smartest and most successful entrepreneurs have generated million dollar ideas with.
- Generate lots of ideas. – The more ideas you create, the more likely you are to create a million dollar idea.
- Much fail. – All ideas that don’t work are just a stepping stone on the way to the one idea that works. Sometimes you have to fail a thousand times to be successful. No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are far ahead of anyone who doesn’t try.
- Consciously consume information. – Some of my friends find it wasteful that I spend so much time reading books and blogs. It is not. That gives me an advantage. I feel surrounded by new ideas and information. And I actually used what I learned to launch some successful websites. When you read things and interact with people, take off your consumer hat and put on your creator cap. All around you, million dollar ideas (or at least some really good ideas) are waiting to be discovered.
- Focus on topics and ideas with large markets. – A million dollars is not much money on a large scale, but it certainly is when you try to make it in a small market with limited opportunities. Even if you put Steve Jobs as CEO for a new company with a maximum market size of 100 employees, he would not make more than a few cents. “Big Bucks” result from high demand in a substantial market.
- Make sure there is money in your market. – Bank robbers rob banks because the money is there. Before you commit yourself emotionally to an idea, you should do some market research. Make sure the idea you are pursuing is where the money is. Who are the customers and consumers? How much disposable income do they have? Etc.
- Keep your eyes, ears and mind wide open. – The failure of an idea often opens the door to a new idea. Don’t be so caught up in a failed attempt that you’ll miss the opening for many more.
- Test variations of the same idea. – Think for a second about the iPhone and the iPad. One is just a variation of the other. Both are multi-million dollar ideas.
- Find out what works well in one market and adapt it to another. – Find an idea that has already been proven and consider how it could be used in a different context. Take a formula that works in a niche and apply it to a new niche. Or take the best aspects of a product and combine it with another product.
- Put the parts together. – The developers of YouTube didn’t invent Flash. They haven’t invented modern digital cameras that can record computer-ready MPEG video. And they haven’t invented broadband internet connections, cheap web hosting, embedded website content, or one-click website upload technology. What they invented is a technology that combines all of these existing parts into one online video sharing portal.
- Take a new turn against an earlier breakthrough. – A new variant of an old idea can still be a million dollar idea. Take Facebook, for example, it wasn’t the first major social networking site, but Mark Zuckerberg and the company added phrases and features that the others didn’t understand. How can you pick up an existing million dollar idea or even a shared idea and give it a new twist, a new direction and a new journey?
- Systematize a popular service to a reproducible product. – A service is produced when its property can be exchanged. Think Alienware and Dell in their infancy. Both companies simply systematized the service for building IBM-compatible PCs and then sold them as a packaged product. If you can turn a high-demand service into a scalable, systematic, efficient process and sell it as a package, the million will appear.
- Playing with opposites. – When something becomes extremely popular, the opposite often becomes popular when people turn away from the mainstream. As WordPress, Blogger, and Movable Type gained popularity by giving everyone with an internet connection the ability to share long, detailed blog posts with the world, Twitter and Tumblr came and started the micro-blogging revolution – for people who grasp it, extremely briefly sharing content snippets. There are hundreds of other examples. Remember, the opposite of a million dollar idea can paradoxically produce another million dollar idea.
- Find and solve problems. – There are many real problems in this world. Like a business owner wondering why his profits are falling. Like a golfer worried about his game. Like a young man who gets bald at 26. Like a mother whose child has allergies. Like a new dog owner who is not sure what to do if her puppy barks all night. Solving such problems can bring millions.
- Design new products that support other successful products. – How much money do you think manufacturers of iPod, iPhone and iPad cases make? Millions? Billions? What about companies that entered the LCD and plasma TV mount bracket manufacturing market eight years ago? You have the idea.
- Keep it simple. – Don’t make a good idea too complicated. Business marketing studies have shown that the more product options that are offered, the less products consumers buy. After all, it is certainly easier to narrow down the best product from a pool of three choices than to narrow down the best product from a pool of three choices. If the purchase decision is difficult to make, most people will simply give up. So when you design a product line, keep it simple. (Read Made to Stick.)
- Use the resources and skills you already have. – It’s not so much about having the right resources, but about using your resources now. Stevie Wonder couldn’t see it, so he used his sense of hearing to have a passion for music and now has 25 Grammy Awards to prove it. If you are pursuing a new company that uses your resources and skills, you are ahead of the game.
- Surround yourself with other thinkers. – They are the sum of the people you spend the most time with. If you are with the wrong people, they will negatively affect you. But if you are with the right people, you will be more capable and powerful than you could have ever done alone. Find your tribe and work together to make a difference in your entire life. Bounce ideas off each other, etc. (read trunks.)
- Be amazed at what you do. – Enthusiasm is the lifeblood of creativity. Great ideas arise when you are passionate and enthusiastic about what you do. It is almost impossible to develop groundbreaking solutions in an area where there is no passionate intensity. But if your mind is stimulated by a basic curiosity and interest in the subject, your creativity will increase and your motivation will skyrocket.
- Accept constructive criticism, but ignore naysayers. – If someone negatively reviews your idea or product, remember that it doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it, but how many. No matter how much progress you make, there will always be people who insist that anything you try is impossible. Or they jealously suggest that the idea or concept as a whole is absolutely ridiculous because nobody really cares. If you come across these people, don’t try to argue with them. Instead, forget that they exist. You will only waste your time and energy.
- Do something with your ideas! – A million dollar idea is just a good idea if you have the chance to grow. On paper, Google and Facebook sprang from normal ideas: “A search engine that is accurate” and “A website where friends connect”. Remember that none of these companies were the first on their market. Your ideas weren’t groundbreaking at that time. Many people had the same ideas before Google and Facebook existed. However, the developers of Google and Facebook did something with their ideas. You worked hard and increased the competition. Her initial success was in her execution. Remember, it’s not the ideas themselves that count, but what you do with them. With the right execution, a simple idea can turn into a million dollar idea. (Read how ideas come about.)
