I happened to come across a very insightful article, so I’m reposting it here. Original article: Million Dollar Ideas Are Worthless Without This…, author: Anthony Vicino, translated using Google Translate.
There will always be more good ideas than the ability to execute them
Raise your hand if you know someone with a million-dollar idea.
Raise your hand if you are the person with a million-dollar idea.
Okay, now look to your left. Great. Now, look to your right.
Notice anything strange? That’s right—everyone has their hand raised. Not just me. Not just you. Every single person.
We all have at least one million-dollar idea lurking inside us. Hell, most of you are probably sitting on a million-dollar idea right now.
Here comes the next question—and fair warning, this isn’t a fun one.
Why Aren’t You?
Note: If you’re actually a millionaire, you can just show yourself to the door. There’s nothing here for you except a bunch of people who are still holding their hands up.
Alright, everyone, put your hands down and let’s get practical: it isn’t a lack of ideas that’s keeping you from achieving massive success in life. A lack of ideas won’t even stop you from achieving average success. No, the thing stopping you from bringing all those crazy ideas to life can be summed up in one sentence: you don’t execute.
Gary Vaynerchuk has far too many quotable lines, but one in particular is especially fitting for me:
Ideas are shit. Execution is the game.
You know what? It’s true. The only reason stopping you from achieving your dreams is that you can’t execute. It’s not a lack of resources. (People accomplish more with less.) It’s not bad luck. (Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.) It isn’t a lack of knowing the right people. (After all, you’re only six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon.)
We often say: If only I had more time, if only I had more money, if only I had…
Here’s the thing: you can consider this good news or bad news (as with most things in life, it depends entirely on your attitude, beliefs, and perspective).
If we had more time, we’d only waste it
If we had more money, we’d only waste it
If only we had… we’d waste it
How do I know? Because we already have enough. The fact that you’re reading this tells me something important about you, my friend.
First, you have access to the internet. Second, you have enough capacity to achieve the goals you set for yourself.
Between Google, YouTube, and Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, there’s nothing you can’t learn, no one you can’t connect with, and nothing you can’t reach.
So why do so few people ever really crush it? Why don’t you cash in on that million-dollar idea?
For ease of discussion, we’ve used the framework of a million-dollar idea, but in reality, it’s just a vague concept that means little to most of us and is worth even less.
What we’re really talking about here today is every aspect of life.
Do you want to lose weight? Meet new people? Learn a new skill? Go on an African safari and ride a zebra?
Your goal doesn’t matter. Too many of us can’t execute on even our most basic aspirations. By now, we’re already immersed in the graveyard of this year’s New Year’s resolutions.
99% of People Are Addicted
Dreaming big is easy. Anyone can do it.
It requires minimal effort and can be accomplished comfortably from your own couch.
Even better, we can tell other people about our dreams and, through an interesting quirk of neurochemistry, receive a dopamine slide-n-slide gift for our efforts.
The last part requires further examination, because it explains why Uncle Ben refuses to share his huge, eccentric ideas with anyone and everyone.
When you tell someone you’re going to do something (say, climb to the top of Mount Everest), your brain burns through beneficial chemicals from its wet noodle, chemicals responsible for rewarding achievement and success.
But if you tell people that you plan to climb Mount Everest, the idea somehow gets turned backward, despite the fact that your chubby ass hasn’t left the couch in a week. I might as well start telling the world I’m going to jump to the moon.
In any case, we’ve already received a reward simply for stating that we’re going to do something. That’s why setting “New Year’s resolutions” feels good. You get points on the scoreboard without actually having to pick up the ball. We all know these people. We all know these people because, unfortunately, we are these people. We all do this to some extent.
The problem, of course, is that you get a quick dopamine hit, and now you feel pretty, oh so pretty, but that high doesn’t last very long. It leaves you quickly and without mercy.
When you do this, you remain in the same place you started (if not lower than that place). Your life satisfaction hasn’t improved at all. In fact, now, when we examine the overall arc of our lives, we’re filled with general regret and unrealized potential.
There is nothing worse in life than regret
99% Sweat
Life could be easy, if you wanted it to be. You could come home from work every night, lie on the couch, and watch Netflix burn your brain.
That’s okay. No one is judging you. Really, most people in the world live according to a similar plan.
But the fact that you’ve stuck around this long tells me something important about you: you’re not satisfied with the masses. You’re not happy doing what you’ve always done.
You want to move beyond your comfort zone. You want to expand. You want to be challenged.
You want to live a life filled with achievement.
I say, fantastic!
Let’s get to work.
Stop dreaming. Start doing.
Yes. Now.