Dunsin Oluwasuji: Ideas Are Overrated

You may have heard that ideas are the bomb. You may also have heard that they rule the world; that they are mightily powerful, that they can kill and give life, and that they are the beginning of all things bright and beautiful. Good. Here’s one thing you very likely haven’t heard about ideas- that they are overrated.

Ideas are like a new born baby. Without a caring mother, they are as good as dead. Imagine a Jesus without a mother-Mary. Ideas without more are infantile, fragile, and even hopeless. Here are 5 supporting structures without which ideas are worth no more than the paper they are written on:

1. FUNDING: If ideas are like a Porsche, funding is the engine that it runs on. It doesn’t matter how full the tank is, without a matching engine, your idea is as good as dead. Imagine whoever had the idea that Buhari be president. Now imagine the billions of Naira that made it a reality. This principle works in politics, construction, education, religion, and especially business. Every big idea needs a big budget to start it or keep it going. The balance is that you don’t need to have everything that will make your idea a reality before you get it started. You just need a fraction. However at the finish line, you will be amazed at how much it has cost you and your team. Ideas are expensive to actualize.

2. KNOWLEDGE: When you get that light-bulb idea, that flash of inspiration, the brainwave that pumps adrenaline into your system and keeps you awake at night, please temper it with research. Research the funding you need to make it a reality, the specialization required to make it a hit, the manpower requirements, the policies in the sector, the time needed to work it…research every impediment that comes to mind, and you may just find out that not all ideas are worth expending your efforts and savings on.

3. A TEAM OF ACTUALIZERS: Ideas are useless without people that push them to reality. To make your idea work, you will need to be devoted to it. You may also need a team. Remember this: You have to absolutely believe in your idea to be able to sell it to its end-users and your team. You are the primary believer in your idea. Others are following your lead and without your leadership and belief, your idea is as good as dead. You are the accelerator of your Porsche. You take your foot off the gas pedal and your beautiful beast grinds to a halt, perhaps, right at the middle of Third Mainland Bridge!

4. FAVOURABLE REGULATIONS: I’m sorry genius. You will find out that without favourable regulation and a friendly government, there’s a limit to how well you can work your brilliant idea, especially in Nigeria. Don’t be shocked when you begin to feel like the government is only paying lip service to making businesses work. Regulations will almost certainly frustrate you. Remember, you heard this first here. It will often feel like you are fighting a system that should encourage you, like you are on your own! Find out before you get into crisis mode if the obstacles posed by regulations are surmountable, or if you should jejely just toss that idea into the bin.
   Remember again, not all ideas are worth your efforts and cash.

5. DETERMINATION
   This is one quality that revolutionaries and inventors are known for: They are mad determined. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mike Zuckerberg, Barrack Obama, Awolowo, Linda Ikeji, Seun Osewa, Adolf Hitler of blessed memory…these guys were determined almost to the point of insanity. They believed in their ideas and worked them to reality. You may know about their glory but you don’t have the faintest idea of the pains, loneliness, rejection, oblivion, loss, ridicule, and the stress they had to go through to make their ideas work. If you have no guts, just keep saying   “I have this great idea”…  till you are so bored of the repetition that you decide to bin the idea. Darling, great structures are built on sweat and tears. If you are low on drive, (and it is not a shame to admit that you are), then your idea is overrated. Bin it.

If on the contrary, you have some funding, you have done considerable research, you have a rock-solid team, the laws of the land favour your cause and you are dogged, then your idea may just bring about world peace, and you are welcome to try. Happy Hunting.

*Oba Dunsin Oluwasuji is a lawyer by training and a media entrepreneur by choice.