Don't Let Your Ideas Die, But Just Make Sure They Don't Suck First
I’m sorry to say, but your app idea might suck.
Tricky business ideas are. They can make you a gazillion dollars and they can take every hard earned penny you ever saved.
It depends on the angle. On motivation, shipping, and selling.
Don’t fret homie…
Here’s 3 reasons why your app idea might suck. Do the opposite and escape the albatross.
1. Your Ideas Eat You
Yup. They can swallow you whole because their your ideas.
I think of some silly shit sometimes. Then I throw it in my ridiculous “app ideas” list in my iPhone. Thank god I do my homework before I act on it because, for example, no matter how entertaining I think Gary Busey is, he might not have a market worth the effort. Or how many people, besides myself, are interested in playing the dice game we constantly played in Beijing? Or who’s gonna want an app about persuasion techniques? How about a Dumb & Dumber drinking game app?
The answer: depends on the market research.
Just because you, and maybe the few friends you’ve discussed your idea with (then threatened to gruesomely murder them if they told another soul 
), love the idea does not mean enough people want it to make it a worthwhile app.
Ideas have a tendency to convince you that they’re king shit of all ideas ever. They aren’t unless you’ve done your homework. Don’t let them eat you.
2. Your Ideas Never Happen
That hurts to hear doesn’t it? Sorry. Wait, I’m not sorry.
No one is going to champion your idea for you. You need to make that happen.
This is where all the glory of the idea diminishes… when work is involved. In his great little book aptly dubbed Do The Work, Steven Pressfield tells a unique story about best-selling author Michael Crichton.
“When Michael Crichton approached the end of a novel (so I’ve read), he used to start getting up earlier and earlier in the morning. He was desperate to keep his mojo going. He’d get up at six, then five, then three-thirty and two-thirty, till he was driving his wife insane. Finally he had to move out of the house. He checked into a hotel (the Kona Village, which ain’t so bad) and worked around the clock till he’d finished the book. Michael Crichton was a pro.”
You have to bust some ass to make your ideas happen. Otherwise they truly aren’t worth about as much as a “used diaper filled with Indian food.”
Fight the resistance, fight your resistance. Pick a shipping date, use momentum, and meet it. Make it happen this time. Please.
3. Your Ideas Need To Spread
Researching and shipping are only two thirds of the battle. It doesn’t end there. The pot of gold is still just a little ways away.
If you’ve created something great, which I’m sure you did, you still need to help it spread.
A world changing innovation that sits in a dimly lit basement corner does the world no good. We didn’t need that idea to ever be made because we never saw it. It didn’t move us. It didn’t help or entertain or enlighten us.
It’s the same for some unreal apps in the App Store. No one knows about them and no one benefits from them. Ideas that don’t spread are not worth as much as they should be. And, again, it’s up to you to make sure that happens (The Little Big App Tribe can help;)).
Make Sure Your Ideas Don’t Suck
You’re life is too short to focus on stuff that people don’t want. Too short to never create. Too short not to move. These 3 reasons why your app idea might suck are here as a warning sign. Steer clear of traps that drain you. Steer clear of these and you’ll be ear-to-ear.
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