My first Ph.D. student sent me a link to another blog post that talked about the differences between ideas and execution, which we both found rather compelling. The short of it is that ideas are quite literally a dime a dozen, and that even if they are any good, you will have to fight quite hard tot get people to accept them. Whereas execution or delivery is everything, it gives the idea body, life.
In the first of the two articles on this, the main point is that execution has a multiplier effect on the original idea--if the idea is worth something like $20, the (very well) executed idea is worth $20,000,000.
I wouldn't call ideas worthless, per se, but it's clear that ideas alone are a hollow sort of currency. Success is rarely determined by the quality of your ideas. But it is frequently determined by the quality of your execution. So instead of worrying about whether the Next Big Idea you're all working on is sufficiently brilliant, worry about how well you're executing.
Success Comes From Execution, not Innovation
It doesn't matter how good or how new my idea is. It matters how well I carry it out in the real world.Now, our history books worship the inventors, not the executors. We are taught all about the people who invent new things, come up with new ideas, and plough new trails. But look around you in present time and in the recent past, and you'll see that the most successful people are the ones who carried out the idea really well, not the people who came up with the idea.
Both articles are well worth the read.
As someone who sees lots of good ideas (and has them) during my research, this makes great intuitive sense--ideas in and of themselves have little value to offer; only the concrete implementation of them demonstrates both their viability and utility. Now, if only I could get the funding agencies to realize this.
Posted by elkaim at May 9, 2010 4:11 AM