BusinessWeek Again!

Hey everyone! I’m on Business Week’s home page again with a quote about LinkedIn (and a picture of me!) So much fun! Check it out – I’m on the lower right side of the home page: Business Week.

How do you know an idea is worth pursuing?

If you’re like me, you have countless ideas. In fact, I’ve lost track of the number of ideas I’ve had for businesses, articles, books, screenplays (mostly sci-fi)… But how do you determine which ideas are worthy of  pursuing?

Nothing worth having in life comes easily. Just take finding a job as a great example. Very few people will be able to pick one perfect job, apply for it, get it, and never have to look anywhere else. Most people will have to apply for many jobs – perhaps even hundreds – before finding the one that “clicks.” It’s the same for scholarships if you’re in school. If you apply for just one, well, good luck. Apply for 300 and you’re likely to get one. It’s a numbers game.

Ideas work the same way. Every idea you have isn’t going to pan out. But if you pursue enough of them, one or two will. However, this is not a perfect metaphor. For every idea you choose to follow and pour energy and creativity into, there are other ideas that must be delayed or denied.

So here’s my question… How do you, personally, judge if an idea is “good enough” to warrant a dedicated pursuit that might preclude following other ideas with the same fervor? How do you decide which one is best?

For me, it’s a combination of things. First, paying jobs always get top billing when I’m choosing between a random idea and a project with a client. But when I’m choosing among different ideas that I’ve had – none of which guarantee pay – then it’s a little tougher. Which one stands the greater chance of success? Which one is more in line with my passions? And for that matter, what are my passions?

Larger companies approach this problem systematically. They will host focus groups and surveys to determine if their target audience is ready for their new product. Sometimes, despite all the pre-production research, a new idea still bombs. For an interesting look at this phenomenon, check out this article about the failure of New Coke.

There’s a good quote in the New Coke article that caught my eye:

“When you’re convinced you’re right, you tend to … push on regardless. If it’s a bad idea, it doesn’t take long for the verdict to be reached…”

Most of us don’t have the money to finance fancy focus groups and product testing. So how do you decide if an idea is worth pursuing? How do you look at your moments of inspiration with objectivity?

The “New Coke” article mentions that, despite the utter failure of its product, Coca Cola pushed forward and introduced new variations of Coke in latter years. The company turned its huge, blundering mistake into a lesson and used that lesson to diversify and gain an even greater market share.

Maybe that’s the trick: don’t be worried about bad ideas. Yes, do your research and think carefully before jumping into something new. But if you research an idea thoroughly, think it’s great, and it still bombs… Move on. Take lessons from the experience and apply them to the next idea. Some of us will be better at identifying a bad idea than others, but all of us – no matter how good or how poor our “idea gauge” may be – can learn from the negatives and keep moving forward.

What do you think?

Follow me on Twitter!

Hey folks! I’ll be posting a real blog soon (maybe even tomorrow.) Until then, I wanted to let you know that I’m increasing my use of Twitter. I’ll be posting links to fun articles I find but would be too short to post here, among other things. So if you haven’t already, please follow me!

You can find me here.

PS: For those who use Twitter, don’t forget that DM messages (ya, I know that’s redundant) are NOT private. (See the article on Mashable here…) D’s are, but still, it’s best to leave private messages for e-mail and Twitter for things you don’t mind the entire world seeing. (Although, when dealing with e-mail, it’s probably best to do the same thing there, too!)

BusinessWeek.com

I remember a few of you asked me to post a link to the page on BusinessWeek that featured a quote from me (my original blog post is here.) Well, after MUCH delay, I finally have it on my website thanks to a friend who saved a screen capture and sent me a PNG of it. Thanks!

If you don’t have a widescreen,  you may have to scroll to the right a bit to see my part. Without further ado, here it is! Just scroll down and look to the right of the screen capture.

(PS: If you’re confused by the automatically generated links attached to my original blog post… Well so am I. How exactly did WordPress decide a blog on cancer is related to my post about being on Business Week? I think the algorithm needs a little work… Lol.)

This man really needs our prayers… :(

This story just broke my heart… A jet plane crashed into a San Diego home, killing a mom, two children, and her mother. The dad, Dong Yun Yoon, was not home when it happened. He left with everything right in the world and came back to find everything gone…

(Warning: This video is sad, so don’t watch unless you’re prepared to shed a few tears…)

He really needs our prayers right now. In another video, he talked about how he knew God was keeping his wife and children safe in heaven. He also said he doesn’t blame the pilot, but hopes people will pray for the pilot to not be overcome with guilt.

That’s pretty amazing. Honestly, there is no way I would handle a situation like that with the grace this man has. First, to hold on to your faith. And second, to forgive so quickly! Some might say he’s just in shock, but if you watch the videos you can see that the shock has already worn off.

The wife was 36 and one baby girl had just been born in October and the other one, Grace, was 15 months old. The wife would have been just a little older than I am when they had their first child! I just cannot even imagine. In a press conference, the husband had only two requests. One was to pray for the pilot (wow). The other was that he knows there are people who have gone through worse than this, and he hopes they can tell him how.

I’m posting this for three reasons. One is that I’m amazed at how he has already forgiven the pilot. So many of us hold grudges over things that are far, far less. Second, is that life is short. Don’t ever take one second for granted, and don’t put off until tomorrow what you could do today.

Third, and most importantly, I’m posting this to ask anyone who reads this to keep him in your prayers. Pray that he finds people who can provide him with comfort and the advice he’s seeking. Sadly, the only way to get through something like this is to walk through the pain. As a wise friend of mine once said, “You can’t move on – you can never move on. But at some point, you can find the strength to move forward.”