Business value is idea quality multiplied by execution quality
Derek Sivers · #88 Derek Sivers: Innovation Versus Imitation · Jul 21, 2020 · at 31:37
Entrepreneur and author Derek Sivers explains his famous heuristic on why ideas alone are worthless without execution to host Shane Parrish.
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“What I wrote is that I think of ideas as a multiplier of execution, right? So let's pretend that we have two columns of numbers here. So an awful idea, let's say that's a negative one, but a weak idea is a one. An okay idea is a 10, and a great idea is a 20, okay? And now imagine another column over here that's the execution column. No execution, doing nothing about it, let's say that's a dollar. Weak execution, a thousand dollars. Okay execution, a 100,000 dollars, and great execution, let's say a million dollars. But the real point is that to make a business, You need to multiply those two columns. That the most amazing idea with no execution is just, you know, okay, let's take great idea worth 20, no execution, one dollar. Okay, that great idea was worth 20 bucks if you don't do anything about it. But on the other hand, you could have like an okay idea and okay execution and maybe make a million dollars. But if you have a great idea times great execution, then you can make twenty million dollars or more or whatever.”
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