Blog

This discussion is around Dhirubhai Ambani’s quote – Ideas are no one’s monopoly, Think Big Think Fast Think Ahead. This quote challenges the common misconception in a startup about ideas and a general sense of protectiveness surrounding it. With speed being everything in the startup world, you’ll need to maintain a balance between protecting your idea vs marketing and validating its demand.

Ideas are no one’s monopoly, Think Big, Think Fast and Think Ahead

Dhirubhai Ambani

Although ideas are the starting point for a business, they are not everything. Ideas give a starting point, but the implementation of these ideas is hard work. It takes more work, commitment and creativity to make things happen.

Think Big Think Fast Think Ahead

This quote sums up the key tenets of a startup/entrepreneurship. If you’re starting something new and want to make a new business, it needs to be bold, valuable and big. This also clearly differentiates entrepreneurship Vs startup. As a startup founder, you’ll need to think of some key things with your idea to qualify it as a startup. Think Big Think Fast Think ahead covers the basic tenets of your startup.

THINK BIG

A startup thrives on the possibility of growing big. It is very different from a small business whose agenda can be small value additions or revenue generation. Startups generally start with a vision to change or create massive value. Scale is one of the most important things in defining yourself as a startup. If it is not a scalable service or product, maybe you want to try to be a small business instead.

When thinking about a startup, we should ensure that the vision is beyond making money. The vision of money is limiting and holds us back. However, a grand vision of bringing a change or revolution can be inspiring to influence new investors, potential employees etc. But unless we think big and create a grand vision, we can’t inspire ourselves or others to make magic happen.

THINK FAST

This is really the base value of a startup. If you want to be successful as a startup founder – speed is everything. Maintain this philosophy for your idea generation and even the MVP – Minimum Viable Product approach. Don’t wait for everything to be complete, start marketing and talking to customers even before the product is ready. Your ability to articulate a vision and develop quickly makes the most important mark as a business.

The idea of a startup is to think and act fast, make mistakes and learn from them. The more time we lose in the process, we risk the death of a business. Speed is one the most valuable things as an entrepreneur. You can change both your business plan, service plan and cost compared to a large company. This can make you increasingly attractive to a customer compared to a corporate that doesn’t treat them as important.

THINK AHEAD

You can’t just solve the problem of today. As a founder, your focus is always on the future. Don’t get lost in solving issues which neither scale nor are relevant in the future. Keep an eye on your long-term goal and those of your market and customers. If you’re not constantly innovating or growing, you lose the biggest benefits of being a startup

Ideas are no one’s monopoly

This is the former part of Dhirubai Ambani’s quote – Think Big Think Fast Think Ahead. If you have an idea, a similar idea has likely passed someone else in some shape or form. However, ideas are no one’s monopoly. The only thing that can make a difference is what you do about this idea.

It takes a lot of work to convert an idea into a business plan. An idea is merely an innocent innovation or a beautiful thought. But you’ll need to validate this and identify whether it has a business validity. Writing a business plan or even starting on basics of a business plan includes identifying your market, competition and price point etc. An idea cannot thrive in vaccum.

I’ve met some fantastic founders who are protective of their idea and keen to get an NDA signed even before talking about the ideas. However, some of them lose the fact or point that your innovation is in how you do things or solve problems. Ideas alone are meaningless sometimes without the context of how you’ll approach to solve it. Most importantly, an investor would be interested to know why you’re best placed to solve that idea – gives you the Unique Selling Point – USP for your business venture.

Big, Fast and Ahead

Dhirubai Ambani’s quote focuses on these three important requirements of a startup. You’ve got very little time to spare and make your ideas fly. You may have already read the stats about startup success rates – Timing really is everything. You compete not just with other startup founders but also with businesses that have better resources to complete the same idea.

The only way you can retain an edge is by doing justice to the tenets of this quote – Think Big Think Fast Think Ahead. There are more values and traits for your to focus on. But please do remember that ideas are no one’s monopoly – it is only your execution that counts and can make a difference. If your focus is on just feeling good about an idea, you’re already wasting the time that can be used in developing and making your idea a business venture.