The biggest challenge I'm currently facing is how to nail down a feasibility plan while retaining some leeway to alter my venture down the road. When you jump off the pedestal and into the pit, things get murky.
Again, I'm the guy creating an open-source idea-sharing network. Is it a website? An app? Will it feel like a database? Or more like a game? What do people want out of such a thing? Do they actually want it? Will they actually use it? And how do we build a service that resonates with how (and how fast) people think?
I've done some competitive analysis that shows countless existing approaches to idea-sharing. A few, for example:
With so many possible directions to move, it is difficult to gauge the most successful approach. Then, too, it is so difficult to separate what I want from what is optimal, not to mention determining whether the dollar should be the primary evaluative metric. "I want to change people's lives! The money? Oh, right. Oops. Feels like an afterthought. Uh oh."
I guess what I am realizing is that our class is teaching us to go head to head with an issue that many businesses might skirt: Why am I here in the first place?
Sure, our personalities, hobbies, contexts, and awarenesses initially lead us to choose one venture over another. But then we find ourselves trying to make the most of that venture, for better or worse, and start to get that feeling that we and our venture are now wedded. Things start to get serious. And now is about the time when I usually feel myself backpedaling, realizing the limits of the space or (in my current case) just how dangerously wide open it is.
It takes a certain degree of conviction to follow through on these projects. I hope you're all hanging in there leading into the feasibility plan deadline. If I can't immediately offer words of wisdom, I hope at least that my little communique provides some comfort in knowing that someone else out there is as mystified (but hopefully also as determined) as you are.
Word. Thanks for the words of comfort (and wisdom)! I share your sense of awe and hesitation in the face of such an overwhelming range of options and, at least in my case, anticipated competitive responses. This is why entrepreneurship seems to be both a science and an art - there is obviously a great deal of preparation and analysis but its all seasoned with some optimism, courage and plain old faith. Your marriage analogy works.
ReplyDeleteAgreed!! Overwhelming is the word that has come to mind so many times, that it is overwhelming :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I can see the shape of my idea changing forms as we go along, some times in ways that I least expected. However, it is hard when you suddenly encounter a bunch of roadblocks and/or negative criticism, and it takes every possible ounce of faith I got (not to mention, optimism) to get past the hurdle, and use the critiques to strengthen the idea further. Courtney, science and art it definitely is, but I would like to add 'building character' to the mix, too ;)