Impossible Scenario??

12 replies
I have been mulling over a thought problem for a few days now. Say all of a sudden an idea popped into your mind while doing nothing. It's something that taps into an endless sea of desperate buyers and improves there lives greatly.

Too good to be true,right. So you get on the internet and realize there is absolute zero people out there that have any information product that even comes close to your idea. And this could be the next ab roller or awaken the giant within.

The problem is I have no entrepreneur acumen. Have failed to make a dime in IM over the past two years, and have not more than a couple hundred dollars to spare, oh and work a full time job.

How would you go about getting this knowledge out there to the masses, in whatever format, improve peoples lives, while at the same time cashing in hugely??
#impossible #scenario
  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by ludes454 View Post

    Too good to be true,right. So you get on the internet and realize there is absolute zero people out there that have any information product that even comes close to your idea.
    My psychic powers tell me you do not completely understand your idea.

    You do not see any competition because you do not understand that your competitor's idea and your own idea are the same idea.
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    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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    • Profile picture of the author ludes454
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      • Profile picture of the author ludes454
        Bravo75,

        Thats the kind of answer I'm looking for - cause I'm just brainstorming to try to understand entrepreneurship more intimately.

        How do you go about getting other talented people to help you when you have very little funds to invest?

        **Do you just have to take a risk, believing fully in your idea, and go into debt, get loans, use credit cards. I guess that's part of why there aren't many Donald Trumps out there, no one wants to take that risk**
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        • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
          Originally Posted by ludes454 View Post

          How do you go about getting other talented people to help you when you have very little funds to invest?
          You bring something other than funds to the table. I frequently partner with people that have larger lists and better reputations than I do, by bringing my writing skills to the table. I do the work, they do the promotion, everybody makes money. This works out when we see eye-to-eye on the core values of what to build, how to build it, what to charge, and how to split the profits.

          It's those core values that are important. You can be successful on a shoestring if you and all your equity partners share the same values, but with a core value conflict, success often becomes impossible.

          Do you just have to take a risk, believing fully in your idea, and go into debt, get loans, use credit cards. I guess that's part of why there aren't many Donald Trumps out there, no one wants to take that risk
          Risk is relative. Entrepreneurialism is all about identifying and reducing risks. Risk management is the single most critical skill of any successful entrepreneur.
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          "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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          • Profile picture of the author ludes454
            CDarklock, Thanks!!

            That opens my mind a little. The fact that a great idea is currency. And then the need to put a solid, detailed, and lucid product or in writing tangible form of the idea is super important.

            What I'm taking from this is that an abstract, pie in the sky great idea is not going to convince anyone to pitch in.

            The fear of failure and risk taking is huge for me. Gotta sort that out too.

            Thanks again for the thoughtful help
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            • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
              Originally Posted by ludes454 View Post

              What I'm taking from this is that an abstract, pie in the sky great idea is not going to convince anyone to pitch in.
              There's a hole in the world like a great black pit, and it's filled with people who are filled with... ideas.

              (Apologies to Stephen Sondheim.)

              Every single entrepreneur is approached over and over again by idiot friends and family members who say "Do you know what you should do? You should make something that does this." and then they walk away.

              But if you actually have the audacity to listen, and try to make that thing they said you should, they'll get mad at you. Because what you're making isn't what they meant, which is to say what they wanted, and you're messing up their idea.

              Which, incidentally, means they should get half of whatever you make with it. Actually, more than half. You know, you really didn't do much of anything, so how about if they just write you a check for a few thousand bucks once the money starts coming in?

              And you learn what those ideas really are. You learn that people are really walking up to you and saying "Hey, do you know what you can never ever EVER do no matter how cool the idea is or how much money you can make with it because I'll make your life hell if you even try?"

              So you start avoiding those people.

              The fear of failure and risk taking is huge for me. Gotta sort that out too.
              You never will. You'll be afraid every single time, and every risk you see will haunt you. What you'll actually learn is that you just have to straighten up, throw your shoulders back, and step over the edge anyway.
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              "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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            • Profile picture of the author ludes454
              Core values - Huge too

              Such as win-win-win scenarios, helping a lot of people, helping your co workers/investors, providing a product that the public will rave about and tell others about, increases happiness- and then making really good money for the value traded.

              Those are my values, so I want to find someone who is with me on that, and not just whoever happens to see a good chunk of change to be made out of manipulation
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              • Profile picture of the author ludes454
                And let me correct post #6

                I need to already have all the value in finished form before approaching someone to invest in my "idea"

                Everyone wants a free meal, and think that their next great idea should just make them millions and millions.

                But in reality, work needs to be a done, a finished product that is irresistible needs to be thrown into the pot before anyone successful will even give me a second thought.

                Is that starting to get me somewhere??
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                • Profile picture of the author ludes454
                  ...And writing the book/or movie/or DVD series, doing it right, doing it to my professional standards with a great presentation - no matter the budget or lack there of, is how I convince others to help me out and in doing so help themselves?
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                • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
                  Originally Posted by ludes454 View Post

                  I need to already have all the value in finished form before approaching someone to invest in my "idea"
                  Well, you need some of it. You need something tangible.

                  E. Brian Rose recently had a decently successful launch, for example, of his "Google Red Carpet" program. That program was promoted through a dozen or so webinars by some big names with big lists and sold hundreds of copies. (I would say thousands, but I'm not 100% sure how many copies he sold, so I don't want to inflate his figures.)

                  Before that program launched, EBR had a WSO right here on this forum for under $20 which covered the core points of the program. He made a pretty solid chunk of change selling this cheap little ebook, and got the attention of those big names.

                  So they were more than happy to form a small army and help him turn a cheap ebook into a high-dollar coaching program which they could promote for a cut of the big bucks he pulled in. He didn't need to have the full program up and running from day one, just enough to identify the core value (and values) of the program and catch the eye of the right partners.
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                  "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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                  • Profile picture of the author ludes454
                    Thank you for time and genius insights,

                    I'm wondering, how do you prevent others from stealing your idea and having the pros quickly take it and make a killing off it, if you offer it here for $10.

                    What if some big shot buys it and thinks, hey I can write my own version and sell it to my list of 700,000 and make a rockstar living for the next decade.

                    What investment is there in trademarking and registering and insuring no one can steal your stuff?

                    I apologize if my questions are basic, but these are the things they never taught me in college, how to actually do it for real in the real world
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                    • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
                      Originally Posted by ludes454 View Post

                      I'm wondering, how do you prevent others from stealing your idea and having the pros quickly take it and make a killing off it, if you offer it here for $10.
                      You don't.

                      EBR's Google News system was ripped off by about a dozen people selling their own crappy version of his system.

                      There was nothing he could do about it, because "how to get your site into Google News" was something anyone and everyone could figure out and write down.

                      Even if they got the idea from him and learned how to do it from him, there was absolutely nothing stopping them from turning around and teaching the same thing to others.

                      But here's the thing: EBR's product was better. Lots of people bought competing products and said "this thing is crap," and then other people would turn around and say "go buy EBR's product."

                      The other guy is always playing catch-up. All the time and energy and effort you've spent on your idea, he hasn't spent. So he's almost certainly going to produce an inferior product.

                      Which is why EBR still made serious bank with his launch. Instead of running around jealously trying to stomp on his competition for stealing his idea, he just turned around and made an even better product that would be near-impossible to rip off.

                      There's no sensible way to protect your ideas. Ideas can't really be owned. Someone else on the other side of the world might have the same idea right now. So don't worry about it.
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                      "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
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  • Profile picture of the author bravo75
    Horses for causes. You may have a talent in coming up with brilliant ideas but no idea on how to turn that idea in to a tangible product. This is one of many reasons why a lot of people pay others to implement their ideas. Online and offline.
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