Million Dollar Ideas

I am an idea machine. One of my favorite distractions is to brainstorm, explore, wonder, and pitch ideas to nobody in particular to solve problems in any number of industries. As a teenager, my first employers - Arby's, McDonalds, random retailers - patiently listened to my early ideas of how to improve sales, process, communications (ahh, the arrogance of youth). Yes, I was met with a quite a few eye rolls and although some of my ideas were implemented, most of my ideas went into the trash with the rest of the unrecyclable containers.

Many years ago, some inspirational nobody sold me a lie and it went something like this:
If you come up with a million dollar idea, you will have $1M.

With this nonsense swirling around my creative head, I came to believe all I had to do was come up with a million dollar idea and I would be a millionaire. Easy peasy. Well, I have come up with several million dollar ideas:

• TV remote control (circa 1981). As a lazy 5th grader I developed a prototype by jabbing a broomstick at the push-button television controls while I laid on the couch 6 feet away.
• Fast food delivery (circa 1990). The presentation included poster-board charts, driver routes, and a limited menu when I was a hungover college student.
• Remote car starter (circa my whole life). The pitch highlighted the heat activation feature motivated by frigid Illinois temperatures.

Turns out, other people had the same million dollar ideas. And better than that - they transformed these ideas into something real and of value. 

We do not live in a world lacking ideas. Some believe successful, profitable people are luckier or have more money or attended expensive schools or have a stronger work ethic than the rest of us paycheck-to-paycheck folks. Maybe. I can't speak about the them or those people. What I know about me is that when I come up with great strategic ideas solving many marketplace problems, something in my brain tells me that I have to give away my idea to someone else; someone more qualified; someone who is luckier or has more money or attended expensive schools or has a stronger work ethic. I give my ideas away and then wonder why I am left empty handed. I give my ideas away because I was never taught what to do with them when they popped into my head; like I missed that day in school. But the more I meet, work for and interact with the them and those people, I discover their secret sauce. Successful and profitable leaders surround themselves with the likes of me. They put together a team of talented, capable, paycheck-to-paycheck people to manage the idea process from development to marketing to technology to sales to supply chain to customer service. They manage the idea process.

In my youth, I thought I just had to come up with the idea. Nope. Turns out that inspirational nobody got it all wrong. It is the team of people who breathe life into a million dollar idea to make it a real piece of business.