Billion Dollar Ideas
"I don’t want million dollar ideas,
Bring me billion dollar ones"
Said a leader, 8 years ago.
I replied,
"With a few million dollar ideas; you’ll discover a billion dollar one. I’ve had billion dollar ideas; they came from a stable of million dollar ones. I couldn’t predict which could make it; you have to iterate on a few and see which evolve and thrive" (I can’t say he liked my answer)
BUT that isn’t the story.
The other day I did it.
It was I
who said,
"This is a million dollar idea, it isn’t interesting,
but I can see a billion dollar idea here"
They said,
"Yes. We can’t be too visionary, our corporate sponsor isn’t investing that far down the future. I don’t think they can consume the big idea hidden here. We need to deliver now to keep their interest and investment, eventually, maybe 5 years down the road we’ll be ready for the big dream"
-
If you don’t anchor on the dream you will never achieve it.
Amazing talent needs 3 things to become enrolled:
☐ 𝗠𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: your "why" and why it matters.
☐ 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆: the big win
☐ 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗵: the way (and waypoints to track progress)
Many will endure a boring path, if the mission is compelling, and the opportunity is sound.
The worry is that dreamers often fail to ‘do’.
This leader expects to deliver.
Don’t fear the dream.
You can deliver,
and
build towards the dream.
If all you share is the tactical, you will only enroll tactical thinkers.
the dream turns:
☐ Employees into evangelists
☐ Vendors into partners
☐ Customers into champions
☐ Shareholders into flag-bearers.
The challenge (and the real work) is how to deliver value, and iterate/react nimbly every step towards the dream.
Original Linkedin Post: https://bit.ly/3qSLX2W
(worth clicking on the original linkedin Post, because the comments are amazing and often the conversation is better than the original post)