It’s not about a great idea. It’s about great execution of an idea.

Starting with this article, I'll publish a series of article on the topic "Entrepreneurship: Starting With The Right Mindset". These articles will cover my talk at MIT Pune on the same topic.

Over the past 4 years of my foray into the world of entrepreneurship, I’ve learned that entrepreneurship makes you learn new thing every single day. Entrepreneurship could be really hard and challenging if you do not start with the right framework of mind. Lot of entrepreneurs wind up their ventures in first year of operations and over 50% of the rest, do so in the second year.

I believe every entrepreneur should pay attention to reasons why most of the startups fail sooner or later and what makes startups survive and be successful over a period of time. It’d help them form a better strategy before taking the plunge and also lessen the chances of failure.


Why do startups fail?

There are several factors that may contribute to failure of startups. Bad coordination between founders, location, niche, obscurity in mission, bad technical/administration/management teams, incorrect choice of technology, late launch, early launch, inability to raise money, business model, poor customer service et al.

I however believe the most important factor is the mindset with which the entrepreneurs start. The mindset of an entrepreneur contributes a lot to success/failure of startup. I have collected five points a wannabe entrepreneur should pay attention to before starting his/her own business. These five points have been collected through my own experience as an entrepreneur, reading lot of entrepreneur stories and observing many entrepreneurs.

Point 1: It’s not about a great idea. It’s about great execution of an idea.

Many wannabe entrepreneurs are stuck with what they think is the #1 step in starting any venture: Coming up with a great, earth shattering idea that no one has thought before. Often, they end up with what’s called ‘analysis-paralysis’. After all, coming up with a great idea is very hard, right?

Think again. Tell me a successful business that started with a great idea? Dell? Do you think selling computers is a great idea? Of course not. There are so many computer sellers out there. But what made Dell the second largest computer manufacturer in the world? Take Google. When Google started, Internet searching was not a new idea. Yahoo, Lycos and Alta Vista were already the big players in the market. Then what made Google do better than others?

The answer is ‘Execution’. Dell, Google, Microsoft, Virgin, Reliance companies have one thing in common – excellent rapid execution.

Take any idea and execution of that idea can make all the difference. The world is full of people with ideas, great ideas, and excellent ideas; but very few take the step to execute them. One may argue that it’s impossible to start a business without knowing what to do. Let me suggest a way to identify how to find ‘your idea’.

Think about the problems that you face in everyday life. Typically, these are the problems that many others (millions of people) face too. You will find out that the environment around you presents you with numerous challenges & problems. Then find out what are the existing solutions available to fix those problems. Once this is done, the next step is to figure out whether you can come up with a solution that will solve the problem in a faster and more efficient manner. If your answer is yes, you have just found out your great business idea. Remember, if you solve your problem and work out a way to solve those problem for others; you have a great business idea. The next step is excellent execution of that idea.