No idea is perfect!

No idea is perfect!

All ideas have a ‘fatal flaw’ stated Scott Painter, founder and CEO of TrueCar.

The ‘fatal flaw’ comment was made in the context of entrepreneurs and the rose-coloured glasses that they tend to wear when it comes to the warts of their idea.
The same thing about ‘fatal flaws’ can be said of all ideas, not just the ideas of entrepreneurs – take the ideas of innovators for example. Entrepreneurs and innovators share much in common, and successful entrepreneurs are often those capable of transforming useful inventions into valuable innovations.

When we can identify the potential fatal flaws or the high hurdles that have to be overcome, we can challenge them, we solve them, and we can unleash the passion of our teams to try to find a way around them.
And the fatal flaws are always there, and the wise entrepreneur or innovator doesn’t ignore them or assume that they will overcome them at some point in the future, but instead invests energy upfront into trying to identify the fatal flaws of the idea. Wisdom will also mean identifying whether we can isolate the solutions – before making further investments of human or financial capital into moving the idea forward.

Timing is a huge key to success both for entrepreneurial ventures and for the development of innovation. Sometimes the time is not right to proceed, and smart entrepreneurs and innovators can recognise this.

When it is time to look for the fatal flaw of an idea, we have to harness this tendency of individuals to ‘poke holes’ in the idea, because we want to find the fatal flaw of an idea as early as possible.

Are you ignoring a ‘fatal flaw’ and pushing your idea forward?