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One thing that separates entrepreneurs from normal people is they aren't afraid of having stupid ideas. A good 90% of the ideas on this list, particularly the e
by WilliamEdward 8y ago
One thing that separates entrepreneurs from normal people is they aren't afraid of having stupid ideas. A good 90% of the ideas on this list, particularly the early ones, are laughable and are ideas you wouldn't catch a serious individual dead trying to come up with. Some people try from the start to be perfect and always fail because they don't understand you need dumb little ideas to be an entrepreneur.
- Shpigford 8y agoSo true! I’ll be the first to tell you the _vast_ majority of those ideas were objectively terrible but every single one of them taught me _something_.
- da02 8y agoIt's also tough to accept the fact the market will buy things that one thinks is "stupid". Back in the 80s, NBC executives hated "The A-Team" despite the immense success it had on the NBC network. They felt the show was low-brow and cartoonish, "a hamburger show on a caviar network."
- bridanp 8y agoI really enjoyed seeing the list, Josh, and I appreciate the share via Twitter and here. My guess is that there are several serial entrepreneurs on Hacker News, and like myself, definitely can identify with your efforts.
- Shpigford 8y agoThanks so much!
- andyidsinga 8y agohey - thanks for participating in the discussion here. I've got a giant list of ideas (99.9% horrible) i've kept over the years. they always seem exciting when I'm writing them down ..but a week later they seem laughable. I always find myself thinking, despite realizing the idea is horrible - that I should have created a 2 or 3 page website as a business-like pre-mvp on the concept while I was still excited about it.
- Shpigford 8y agoYeah, I think a lot of it comes down to motivation. Most of these items were simply me having an idea or interest and wanting to learn more about it. Building something is sort of creative exploration for me. If it becomes something, cool. If it doesn't, also cool. I still learned stuff.
- ThomPete 8y agoWhile that is true its certainly not the only way to do it.
- cyberpunk0 8y agoArticles like this are always half delusional. Yeah you need to be able to fail but you also need a lot of money to continue failing at these stupid ideas until one works. Start ups are toys for rich Wall Street people and trust fund kids. Most people wanting to break in as an entrepreneur and start a business realistically have 1 shot.
- tonyedgecombe 8y agoIt's often been a surprise to me which projects succeed, several times I've looked at a product and thought that is never going to work only to be proved wrong.