Execution is NOT everything. Original Ideas are.
A new paradigm for aspiring entrepreneurs
Ideas VS Execution
Imagine, for a moment, two garages. Yes garages are often places where great companies started - think Apple or Hewlett-Packard. In the first, we see a meticulously organized workspace, with neatly labeled tools and a whiteboard covered in detailed business plans. In the second, we find a chaotic jumble of half-finished projects, scribbled notes on napkins, and an eclectic collection of seemingly random objects. Which garage, do you think, is more likely to birth the next world-changing innovation?
If you picked the first one, you’re in good company. For years, management consultants and business gurus have preached the gospel of execution. “Ideas are cheap,” they say. “Execution is everything.” It’s a comforting notion, especially for established businesses. After all, if success is just a matter of executing well on existing ideas, then the path forward is clear: optimize, streamline, and out-execute the competition.
But what if this conventional wisdom is leading us astray? What if, in our rush to praise execution, we’ve undervalued the true currency of innovation: creativity? Remember one of the most valuable company was build on creative tinkering and ideas: Apple.
The Myth of Ideas growing on trees
Let’s consider a counterintuitive notion: truly great ideas are becoming increasingly rare and valuable. This isn’t to say that there’s a shortage of ideas in general. In fact, we’re drowning in ideas. Every day, countless startups launch, each convinced they’ve found the next big thing. Yet, how many of these are truly original? How many represent a genuine leap forward, rather than an incremental improvement or a rehash of existing concepts?
Dr. Adam Grant, organizational psychologist at Wharton, puts it this way: “In a world of abundant knowledge and rapid imitation, execution skills are necessary but not sufficient. The scarce, precious resource is extraordinary ideas.”
This scarcity of extraordinary ideas is precisely why the messy, chaotic garage of our creative tinkerer might be the more fertile ground for innovation. It’s in these unstructured spaces, where diverse concepts collide and combine in unexpected ways, that truly original ideas are born.
The Power of Combinatorial Creativity
Steve Jobs once said, “Creativity is just connecting things.” This simple statement belies a profound truth about innovation. The most groundbreaking ideas often come not from inventing something entirely new, but from combining existing concepts in novel ways.
Consider the story of Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter. The idea for Twitter didn’t spring fully formed from a business plan. Instead, it emerged from Dorsey’s eclectic interests in dispatch logistics, LiveJournal (an early blogging platform), and AOL Instant Messenger status updates. It was the unique combination of these seemingly unrelated concepts that gave birth to a platform that would change the way we communicate.
This ability to make connections between disparate ideas is what sets true entrepreneurs apart. It’s not just about having a lot of ideas, but about having the right ideas and recognizing their potential.
The Tinkerer’s Advantage
This is where our creative tinkerers have a distinct advantage. Their curiosity-driven exploration, their willingness to play with ideas without immediate concern for practicality, allows them to stumble upon connections that more focused, execution-oriented thinkers might miss.
Take James Dyson, for instance. His revolutionary bagless vacuum cleaner wasn’t the result of a carefully executed business plan. Instead, it came from his frustration with his own vacuum and a chance observation of industrial cyclone towers used in sawmills. It took Dyson 5,126 prototypes and 15 years before he had a product ready for market. This is not the story of efficient execution, but of relentless, creative tinkering.
Or consider Percy Spencer, an engineer at Raytheon. One day, while working with a magnetron, he noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. Rather than dismissing this as an annoyance, his curiosity led him to experiment further, eventually leading to the invention of the microwave oven. It was Spencer’s openness to unexpected observations and his willingness to explore them that led to this breakthrough.
These stories challenge the notion that good ideas are easy to come by. They suggest that the ability to generate truly innovative ideas — to see connections where others don’t — is a rare and valuable skill.
The AI-Augmented Tinkerer
Now, let’s add a new element to our creative garage: artificial intelligence. AI tools are not just changing how we execute ideas; they’re transforming how we generate them in the first place.
Imagine our tinkerer, armed not just with their natural curiosity and diverse interests, but with AI tools that can process and connect vast amounts of information in ways the human mind cannot. This is where things get really interesting.
Consider these AI-powered ideation tools:
1. GPT-3 and other large language models: These can generate ideas based on prompts, potentially surfacing connections that might not occur to a human thinker.
2. Artificial Inventor (AI) by Iprova: This tool uses AI to analyze patent databases and scientific literature, identifying cross-industry innovation opportunities.
3. IBM’s Watson Discovery: This AI can analyze vast amounts of unstructured data to identify patterns and insights that could spark new ideas.
These tools don’t replace human creativity; they augment it. They can help tinkerers cast a wider net, exploring connections between fields that might seem unrelated at first glance.
For example, a solopreneur interested in sustainable fashion might use GPT-4o to generate ideas combining textile technology, biodegradable materials, and traditional craftsmanship. The AI might suggest a connection between spider silk production techniques and traditional weaving methods, sparking an idea for a new type of eco-friendly, high-performance fabric.
Or consider a tinkerer in the field of urban agriculture. Using Artificial Inventor, they might discover a patent for a new type of hydroponic system in the aerospace industry, inspiring an idea for a space-efficient vertical farming solution for cities.
The key here is that these AI tools are not just presenting existing ideas; they’re helping to generate new connections, new combinations that might not have occurred to a human thinker alone. They’re expanding the creative playground of our tinkerer, allowing them to explore a vastly larger space of potential ideas.
The Micro-Niche Opportunity
This AI-augmented creativity opens up exciting possibilities, especially for solopreneurs. In a world where execution at scale is increasingly dominated by large corporations with vast resources, solopreneurs can carve out unique spaces by focusing on truly original ideas, often in micro-niches.
Consider the story of Nootrobox(now HVMN) a startup that used AI-driven market analysis to identify a growing interest in cognitive enhancement among Silicon Valley professionals. This led them to develop a line of nootropics (cognitive enhancement supplements) specifically tailored for this niche market. Their success didn’t come from out-executing pharmaceutical giants, but from identifying and serving a specific micro-niche with a novel product idea.
Or take Stitch Fix, which started as a solo venture by Katrina Lake. She used AI not just for execution (like personalized styling algorithms), but in the ideation phase to identify underserved niches in the fashion market. This led to the creation of a unique business model that combined human creativity (personal stylists) with AI-driven insights.
These examples suggest a new path for solopreneurs: instead of trying to out-execute larger competitors on broad ideas, focus on using AI-augmented creativity to uncover and serve unique micro-niches profitably.
Rethinking the “Execution is Everything” Mantra
So where does this leave us? Are we suggesting that execution doesn’t matter? Not at all. Execution is crucial. But in a world where execution skills are becoming increasingly commoditized and AI tools are levelling the playing field, the ability to generate truly novel ideas is becoming the key differentiator.
Perhaps it’s time to retire the “ideas are cheap, execution is everything” mantra.
Instead, we might say:
“Common ideas are cheap. Truly innovative ideas, born from creative tinkering and augmented by AI, are rare and precious. And executing on these ideas in unique micro-niches can be a powerful strategy for solopreneurs.”
As we stand on the brink of an AI-powered creative revolution, the future belongs not just to those who can execute efficiently, but to the curious tinkerers. Those who can combine their unique human creativity with the power of AI to explore new idea spaces, make unexpected connections, and uncover hidden opportunities.
In this new landscape, the messy, idea-filled garage of our creative tinkerer doesn’t just compete with the orderly workspace of the efficient executor — it has the potential to change the game entirely. And that’s an idea worth tinkering with.
I write about new business creation, solopreneurs and my own experience on this journey. I invite you to join the conversation.