Comments on: The billion dollar genius ego dilemma

By: Riamu

Riamu — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:38:52 +0000

I actually do have an idea, which will make ton of money but I can't talk about it.

By: Shalmanese

Shalmanese — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:54:39 +0000

There's a difference between “the holy grail problem can be solved” and “you will solve the holy grail problem”. Yes, they laughed at Galileo, but they also laughed at Bozo the clown.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:50:46 +0000

Yes. For example, it was completely ludicrous for two grad students to think that they could do search better than all the companies that had poured over a billion dollars into search engines and search portals and search aggregators in the preceding years. Come on, guys, altavista and yahoo! and lycos have got this thing down. Go run off and build an online storefront like all your friends are doing.

In order to be successful, I think you have to have a certain amount of hubris. If you're paralyzed by the thought that, no matter what you're trying to do, other smarter people have tried and failed…well, you're not going to do anything. Obviously it's very possible to go too far in this direction, but imagine where we would be today if various entrepreneurs had backed down thinking “oh, well, others already tried that and I guess I'm not smarter than they are, huh?”

By: James Andrix

James Andrix — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:44:07 +0000

You can still consistently believe you have a billion dollar idea, and the most people who think they have billion dollar ideas are wrong, so long as you are open to the possibility that you are wrong. You don't have to think you're somehow special.

This should really be true of anything you believe. Tons of people have basic facts wrong, but there's a set of basic facts you think you're right about.

By: jose_the_one

jose_the_one — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:56:22 +0000

Do you know how most discoveries are done? , someone is drunk with and idea that makes him work a lot for putting this idea to work, and they discovered the idea they thought about was wrong, but SOMETHING GREAT they didn't think about is discovered in the process.

Imagine being google founders, or any founder, if you doubt about you, you stop working. You know what the Teslamotors electric car makers said, we didn't thought it was going to be so difficult, IF WE KNEW PROBABLY WE DIDN'T HAD STARTED. Same happened with Pixar, trolltech, whatever.

Passion is what powers them all. Stop using your brain to stop you.

By: Abe

Abe — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:38:20 +0000

This strikes me as ENTIRELY the wrong attitude with regard to innovation. The reason great discoveries get made, or great ideas take off, is because someone somewhere thought precisely what you sarcastically describe above, and was right about it! They were able to overcome the nagging little voice in the back of their heads telling them that no, surely some much smarter person has already thought of this and dismissed it for some good reason that they're just not capable of realizing yet, so why even bother trying to get this idea off the ground?

Being innovative does require having some amount of arrogance (or ego), sure, but that's not a bad thing! The proper response to someone who thinks they've figured out one of the holy grail problems is not to be annoyed and disdainful without ever giving them a fair hearing; it's to listen to their idea, think it through on the merits, and either dismiss it (and give them your reason why) or encourage them to go with it. If you tell them up front why it won't work, they'll either listen or they won't. But if you just sniff and say, “As if!” before even hearing their idea or thinking it through, then they shouldn't listen to you because your pointless and baseless closed-mindedness serves no purpose.

By: 3-D

3-D — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:28:26 +0000

Ego is a necessary part of human advancement and personal wealth. If some jackass didn't get the idea in his head that he was smarter or better than those that came before him, we wouldn't have the advances that we do.

Yes, that thinking leads to a ton of failures, but as a society on the whole we benefit from the one success when it finally does happen. Chase your "dumb" idea, allowing your ego to shove aside your fear of failure and embarrassment. Try to have fun along the way as well, soak up any lessons you can from each little failure, an revel in each little success. Live in each moment and don't worry if you reach the original destination.

At least you'll have a good time pursuing what you want and (with a little humility) learn a few things along the way!