Want an easy way to make a million dollars?
Demand a dime every time someone tells you that success is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. You\’ll be able to pocket some cash each time you mention you\’re building a business.
That the warning is now an old saw doesn\’t mean it\’s not true, of course. A good idea is always the easy bit. It\’s just not very helpful.
What are you supposed to do in the 99 percent of the time that follows your idea? What do you do after inspiration strikes? What are you supposed to be sweating over?
The first bit of hard work will come with the production. You\’ll have to roll up your sleeves and start building. It doesn\’t matter whether you\’re creating a new website, an iPhone app or a rocket to take you to Mars, that\’s always going to be difficult. You\’ll plan and budget, look for developers, and imagine the way it\’s all going to look when it\’s finished.
And when it\’s finished, it will look nothing like the way you imagined it and it will cost a lot more than you budgeted.
The plans will run into trouble, developers will misunderstand or take shortcuts, what you thought would work you\’ll find won\’t work at all. The road from idea to product is long, winding and filled with potholes. It will take time to reach the end.
And that\’s when the sweating really begins.
Work doesn\’t stop when your product is out. You still have to gauge the audience\’s reaction, test it in the field. And you still have to market it.
That\’s particularly true if your product is a website. Today, you can build and launch a website in minutes. But to build a website that actually makes money means sweating for months over SEO and linkbuilding. It means producing high quality content on a regular basis, and it means testing ad positions, keywords and site designs. It\’s a constant process of testing, tweaking and testing again until your site is working at its most efficient and monetizing most of your users in the best way possible.
Only then can you stop sweating and relax. Which is usually when you have another idea.