A Good Idea Isn’t Necessarily a Good Opportunity

I have a lot of ideas.

Most of them I probably shouldn’t pursue.

It’s taken me a long time to appreciate the difference between a good idea and a good opportunity.

An idea can be clever.

It can solve a real problem.

People can tell you they love it.

And it can still be a terrible business.

Over the years, I’ve learned to ask a different set of questions.

Is there a real problem here?

Do enough people have it?

Are they willing to pay to solve it?

Is there a practical way to reach them?

Can the economics actually work?

And maybe most importantly:

Am I the right person to pursue it?

That last question is easy to overlook.

An opportunity might make perfect sense on paper and still be completely wrong for the person considering it.

Maybe it requires a lot of capital.

Maybe it needs someone who loves operations.

Maybe success means managing 50 employees when what you really enjoy is inventing things.

Or maybe the idea is good, but someone else is better positioned to bring it to life.

I’ve had ideas I’ve turned into businesses, ideas I’ve licensed to other companies, ideas I’ve helped other people pursue, and plenty that never made it past a notebook.

That’s okay.

The goal isn’t to pursue every good idea.

It’s to recognize which ones might actually be opportunities—and then decide what role, if any, you want to play in them.

These days, when I come across an interesting idea, I try not to immediately ask:

How do I make this happen?

I start with:

Is there really an opportunity here?

And then:

Is it an opportunity for me?

Those are two very different questions.