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Idea Guy vs. Real Entrepreneurship
I want to touch briefly on a curious character walking the American business landscape - the Idea Guy. You may know an Idea Guy. Always dreaming and never executing. They dream because they are too afraid to act or they simply do not know how to act.
People often confuse real entrepreneurs with Idea Guys. It’s similar to the coral snake and the king snake. Both share similar traits but one – the coral snake – is extremely dangerous. The king snake isn’t.
Here are some of the traits of the Idea Guy that are often confused with Real Entrepreneurship:
- They can’t focus on one idea. Real entrepreneurs generate idea after idea for the company they are currently working on. Although they may think about other opportunities the majority of their time is spent focusing on and building on ideas for their current business.
- They are not good with details. This is not a specific problem with all entrepreneurs but is almost always a problem with idea guys. Stating that all entrepreneurs are not good with details is as ignorant as saying that all entrepreneurs don’t sleep.
- Good at starting businesses but bad at running them. This is the classic Idea Guy trait. Real entrepreneurs start, build and sell businesses over and over again.
- They thrive off organizational chaos. Real entrepreneurs understand the value of organization and although most start ups are not the most organized companies in the world; operational control is eventually reined in and systems are put in place as the business grows. Idea guys live in a world of chaos because they can’t figure out how to create order and build an organization. Real entrepreneurs thieve on the idea of introducing a product into their industry that creates so much market chaos that their competitors quickly reside to defeat.
- They’re not sales oriented. Real entrepreneurs are almost always good natural salespeople. The idea guy almost always struggles to sell.
When Idea Guys finally do act they are often dangerous. In most cases they have no idea how to execute a strategy. Incredibly, they are often distracted by other ideas, leaving their current “project’ floundering. Idea guys often create confusion in their own life and the life of others because they are not dedicated to seeing an idea through and they are to distracted by their own minds desire to create many things instead of focusing on one thing.Â
There exists a fine line between real entrepreneurs and idea guys. The uneducated public thinks of entrepreneurs jumping head first into ideas with no time to write a business plan or strategize. In fact, the opposite is true. Real entrepreneurs plan and execute on that plan.
Remember what Nolan Bushnell said: “The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” Don’t be fooled by the idea guy masquerading as a real entrepreneur.
That said, I’ll be looking for the post about how to “reform” the idea guy…
Left by David on 12/05/2006I think there needs to be some kind of AA for the idea guy. Its good to have ideas - they are important but at some point a person needs to execute.
Left by Chris Knudsen on 12/05/2006I have a sneaking suspicion many of your ideas for this post came from a certain, specific person.
I sometimes wonder if I have “idea guy syndrome” or at least some symptoms of it, mainly because I haven’t reached the level of success that I’ve been working toward lo these many years.
After reviewing each point and examining my past performance I find that I’m not 100% one way or the other. That is, I do sometimes get distracted, but overall I’ve focused 95% of my time on my main idea. I’m not great with details but I’m not terrible either. I seem to do a decent job starting businesses but I have experienced problems running them, although the definition of “problems” is subjective and I only say I have problems because my hopes and expectations outstrip my actual accomplishments, but I suppose that’s only natural for most entrepreneurs, other than the guys at YouTube who just made $1.65 billion. I’m not a type a personality, but I’m not completely disorganized either. And while I think there are people out there who can sell better than I can and I’m always looking for them, historically most of the revenue from my company can be traced back to myself.
So am I an idea guy or not? I guess it depends on who’s passing judgement and whether they have all the facts. As for myself, I can’t get much more committal than saying “Maybe, somewhat, yeah, well…maybe not.” If you add “indecisive” to the list maybe that will tip me to the “idea” side of things.
Left by Joshua Steimle on 12/05/2006Josh:
Idea guy + execution = entrepreneur. I’d say this is you.
Idea guy + no execution = idea guy. Not you.
I hope I didn’t diminish the value of being idea oriented. Ideas are incredibly important. They are the seed of what a business will become. But ideas without execution are worthless.
MWI is one of the most successful Web dev and SEO firms in the state. That says a lot about you and your ability. Don’t ever let anyone tell you you’re not an entrepreneur.
Left by Chris Knudsen on 12/05/2006What if you have an idea, start a company, and the business fails? Based on your description, I’m an idea guy. But of course I consider myself an entrepreneur. How do I go from being an idea guy to an entrepreneur?
Based on your idea guy blog, you make it sound like it’s hopeless to change. In actually, you can learn to be an Entrepreneur.
I take issue with your last criteria: Real entrepreneurs are almost always good natural salespeople.
I was just in a sales seminar, and one thing the super star sales guy emphasized was that sales is a learned skill. People aren’t born “super stars”. They learn to become super stars.
One concept is not to go the “lone wolf” approach. We all have talents. So if your talent is to be the idea guy, then surround yourself with the sales star, the detailed oriented person, the right financial person, etc. I think the team is more important than anything.
Just a few thoughts from an “Idea Guy”.
Left by Idea Guy on 12/06/2006Idea Guy:
Thanks for the comments. Once you executed on the idea you became an entrepreneur. If it failed then it failed. But why did it fail?
From the tone and content of your post you sound as though you can’t manage or sell. That’s a problem. Having great ideas is a good thing but you need to be able to put a strategy in place and lead on execution. You as the CEO can’t rely on others to do that for you. CEO’s do way more than come up with ideas for others to act on.
Read my post on Real Entrepreneurship. You will see that I agree with you that these skills can be taught. I learned to be a good salesman over time but the thing I found was that I have a personality that makes me good at sales. I was born with that. I learned prospecting, proposals, closing, etc. They all compliment each other.
Like I said, you need to have ideas and you need to be idea oriented but don’t think that you can sit around all day and come up with ideas for other people to execute on. It doesn’t work and if you plan on running the show as the CEO then you need a way broader skill range if you are going to be successful
Left by Chris Knudsen on 12/06/2006