Ideas Don’t Matter

If you’ve ever watched, The Social Network you know a little about the backstory to Facebook. Like anything in Hollywood, it is certainly over dramatized. And like most things that do with Entrepreneurship, they focus on the idea of Facebook. It’s almost as if the only thing that really mattered with Facebook was the idea. Once Mark had the idea, the rest was simply inevitable.

But nothing could be further from the truth. They had to build it. They had to host it. They had to overcome technical challenges. And perhaps most important, they had to get people to use it.

Facebook was an awesome idea, but dozens of other social networks had existed before. What made it better was the execution. In business, execution is everything. Ideas don’t really count.

It’s also true in life. Having the idea of working out doesn’t make you healthier. Having an idea to ask a girl out doesn’t get you a date. And having an idea how to help someone in need doesn’t change the world.

To borrow from our friends at Nike: Just do it.