Bad Ideas Matter too
Chronicles of an Afropreneur
Bad Ideas Matter Too
Dear ,
Last week I spent time with some entrepreneurs restrategizing on their operations and it hit me that a lot of 'ideas' that could be potential game-changers are ignored because we assume that they are bullshit.
Experts estimate we think between 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day. That’s an average of 2500 – 3,300 thoughts per hour. These thoughts generate thousands of ideas in our lifetime, some genius, and some not so genius.
We do not act on some of our ideas because we feel these ideas are bad or not genius enough or valuable enough. Here are some companies that creatively turned a seemingly bad idea into incredible businesses:
Rent-A-Chicken: This service does let you rent a chicken. Huh? You can rent chickens for six months while the parent company provides everything needed to take care of the chicken. All of this is delivered to your home and completely set up.
Doggles: Goggles for dogs! I'm sure you do not realize that this is a million-dollar business who has customers ranging from pet enthusiasts to the US military.
Pet rock: Literally a rock in a box of hay, complete with breathing holes, this simple toy was invented by former advertising exec Gary Dahl in 1975, who marketed the rock as a pet that requires absolutely no caring for. He earned an estimated $15m from this.
Ashley Madison: "Life is short. Have an affair” is the site's slogan and its founder, Noel Biderman, is a happily married man. The irony! Imagine building a dating app for affairs with amassing roughly 1.8m visitors per month. Good business right?
Snuggies: Blankets with sleeves. Snuggies were a huge success when they first came out Since 2008, over 30 million Snuggies have been sold, raking in over $500 million.
Ifartapp: imagine making a million dollars from an iPhone app that produces fart sounds. The app was downloaded 113,885 times during its first two weeks on the market. It is now one of the top 100 most downloaded apps on Apple's App Store.
Here's what we can learn from this:
Because an idea seems bad to you does not mean it is bad to customers.
Packaging and presentation play a huge role in the success of an idea.
Not taking yourself too seriously can result in some serious business.
It's not the idea, it's the execution that is most important.
What outrageous idea have you thought recently?
Keep grinding,
Uwem
P.S: Join my super-personal Whatsapp group, where we engage in weekly conversations and I share insights - https://chat.whatsapp.com/JJO14vdB4Ce9yt1aUnbRGt