Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Alyssa Royse
Most entrepreneurs have a seemingly endless flow of ideas. Ideas are awesome. They’re intoxicating little seductresses, but as often as not, they’re all flirt, no action. Opportunities, on the other hand, often come out of left field, are not of our own creation, and can be more action than flirt.
The problem is that many of us don’t know the difference between an idea and opportunity, much less what to do with them. We get so focused on our fantasies that we don’t appreciate reality, and that’s where Isla Fisher comes in. The sophomoric fantasies of schoolboys are a great way to illustrate the (often just as sophomoric) fantasies of entrepreneurs.
Ideas are things that you would do if you could. It wouldn’t take long to come up with a good list of things that you would do with Isla Fisher if you could. Everything from dinner to bubble baths to watching every single episode of Battlestar Galactica, to.…. You may even be sure that even though you are not as hot as she is, or a movie star like she is, you can win her heart forever.
Not unlike all the cool ideas for businesses that you have, that you would do, if only….. Or that you may even try and build a company around, even though it is nothing more than an idea.
Regardless of whether or not you ever get the chance, ideas can be very useful. By running these scenarios through your head, you are:
• Getting a clearer sense of what you want to do, and conversely what you don’t want to do.
• You are focusing on minute details that may help you further define your vision.
• You are getting comfortable with techniques and details that may be useful in future opportunities, even if you don’t get a shot at Isla Fisher – like, say, some girl who actually will go out with you.
Even if you never meet Isla Fisher, you’ve figured some stuff out that will be useful later. Even if you never build a company around the great idea you had, you may use the great idea to perfect a product in a future company.
However, ideas can also be very dangerous. If you get too attached to them you run the risk of:
• Focusing so much on what “could be” that you don’t notice what “is.” No matter how much Isla Fisher loves you in your fantasies, if you don’t deal with the fact that you’re overweight, primarily speak Klingon and don’t ever talk to real girls, you’re still going to be very lonely.
• Focusing too much on an idea can limit your ability to identify larger trends and markets. You may think it’s the coolest thing in the world, but if no one else wants it, you’re still just a guy with an idea.
• Hanging on to ideas for too long leaves you very little energy and focus to deal with things that can and should happen in the real world.
• Ideas are often rooted in your ideas about yourself, and not in the larger needs and willingness of a market, which is what business requires. (Or in this case, what a real relationship would require – the needs and willingness of another human being.)
This is what leads us to the oft heard phrases, “you do NOT have the next Google,” and “dude, it’s a feature, not a company.” Or the old standby, “get a grip.”
Opportunities are things that present themselves to you, often ready to go, and you just have to say “yes,” and get it done. But very often, people are so fixated on their ideas, that they don’t know what to do when an opportunity presents itself – largely because opportunity often differs from your ideas.
For instance, you are in Vegas, and by the glory of god, get stuck, alone, in an elevator with Isla Fisher. This is NOT how you’ve pictured it. Where’s the open bar, the Jacuzzi tub, the 4-star dinner with a view of the sunset? But dude, you’re in an elevator with Isla Fisher – what are you going to do about it?
• Give up your ideas of what should be and work with what is.
• Ask yourself if there is a way to leverage this opportunity into something else that may eventually incorporate your ideas.
• Realize that even though this may the “starter” version of what you were hoping for, it’s still a foot in the door and offers you a way to get your juices flowing.
• Do a quick inventory – what do you actually LOSE by pursuing this opportunity even though it is not what you were planning and may seem to get in the way of the actual ideas you’d been growing in your head?
You would, in anyone’s mind, be an absolute idiot not to pursue the opportunity that was presented to you. And you would, without a doubt, regret it for years if you just sat there with your hands in your pockets and your eyes to the ground.
The business equivalent may be something like admitting that your startup is going nowhere and accepting a job as part of a team in a company that is going somewhere. Yah, you won’t be CEO on the cover of Wired, but you may be part of something bigger and better. Most of the first 200 people at Microsoft probably could have started their own company, but I doubt many of them regret their decision to board the Mothership as it was taking off. (Giving Isla Fisher a lame – and consensual – kiss on the cheek in reality would be better than years of fantasy!)
Sometimes, you have to do it, even though it wasn’t your plan.
We are all, constantly, cautioned against trying to do too much. I tend to give the opposite advice. Don’t be so laser focused on your ideas that you forget to take reality and opportunity into account. Or that you stop thinking creatively.
Ideas are a dime a dozen – even great ones. Opportunities are few and far between. The truth is that you need BOTH in order to succeed. No matter how good an idea is, if there is no opportunity, it doesn’t matter. You cannot wish it to fruition any more than you can watch Wedding Crashers 1,000 times and make Isla Fisher fall in love with you.
If you have an opportunity, you have to make it work for you. But first you have to know it when you see it.
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Alyssa Royse is the founder of JUST CAUSE Magazine, and was recently handed a remarkable opportunity that is making her very happy and very tired. She did just watch two movies with Isla Fisher in them, and is shocked by how much both characters are just like her, except the extreme hotness part. Reality’s a bitch.
