Since it’s the weekend, let’s take a quick break from the public speaking tips and get back to my random thoughts…
A couple of weeks ago there were a few discussions in the Sri Lankan blogosphere about business ideas. Unfortunately, most of the good ones were not new, but might be good in Sri Lanka because someone could get the first mover advantage if implemented correctly. I suppose technically, SL firms would have second mover advantage because they can learn from the mistakes of the first in other countries.
In my entrepreneurship class last semester we came up with a business concept we wanted to roll out in Montreal and then eventually expand to the rest of Quebec and Canada. While we presented the plan to the class, at one point the teacher stopped us and said: “That’s BRILLIANT!”. We knew it was a good idea and the professor told us that he really thought it could work. Unfortunately, all of us weren’t finished school yet but we were seriously considering it in the future…
It turns out that a company in the US has just launched our idea and is getting $10M+ in VC funding! What does this tell me? It IS a good idea, clearly there is a market for it and there are also people willing to invest millions of dollars in it! Here’s where we arrive at the crossroad/dilemma:
The thought actually crossed my mind if I should forfeit the consulting job I’ve signed for and go full speed ahead with this idea. Then I realized that would probably be a stupid move. I’m going to be getting a lot of training and a decent salary for the job I will be doing. I’m also finding that the older I get and the more things I experience allow me to come up with better and better business ideas. Maybe with more experience I’ll come up with the next big thing and so I should wait? Or maybe I should do what others have done and just take a HUGE risk…?
I wouldn’t consider myself to be risk averse, but in this case my calculations are telling me that dropping a consulting job might not be the smartest thing to do at this junction. On the other hand, $10M in VC funding does sound nice… 