Ideas a dime a dozen. Execution is the key to success.

I meet so many aspiring founders who feel that they have the next billion-dollar idea. They just sit with that idea and keep it a secret. One of the Founders who wanted guidance for me even asked me to sign an NDA, which of course I had to politely refuse.

The easy part of the idea is the assumptions we make in our own thoughts:

1. I'll build that App and it will go viral.
2. I'll raise multi-million dollar funding with that virality.
3. That friend of mine from IIT Delhi will leave his job at Google and immediately join me as the CTO.
4. I'll soon be rich and drive Lamborghini.
5.....

Unfortunately, reality doesn't work that way. Here is how reality works:

1. You have to talk to 50 prospects to get a conviction that this idea might make sense.
2. Because you're a non-coder, you struggle to release a Product in the market.
3. You don't have the risk appetite to hire someone to build because it's expensive.
4. Your friend at Google is happy with his job and pay and there is no chance of him joining you as the co-founder.
5. You find some no-code tools, but you have a hard time using them at all. Your excitement has already started to fade away.
6. Then there are 3 - 4 months of heavy disappointment due to a complete lack of progress. Many of you even decide to give up during this time.
7. Those who don't give up and are able to launch a minimum viable product, realize that not even a fraction of the million users they had thought of have downloaded the App. Virality was merely a hope.
8. One week after the launch, there are just 18 downloads, 16 of them being friends and family. 2 users came from the Facebook post.
9. One of those 2 users uninstalled leaving a 1-star review saying that the App crashed on her Xiaomi phone. You get extremely disappointed.
10. A lot of others will wind up the shop at this stage.
11.....

This is when one realizes the value of the statement I made earlier - Ideas a dime a dozen. Execution is the key to success.

The kind of journey I described above, is, in fact, not even close to the toughest phases of an entrepreneur's life. Think of situations like a key employee leaving, a customer switching to a competitor, layoffs, a lack of funds, etc.

The whole game of entrepreneurs is to convert your ideas into a reality. If only ideas led to success, every alternate person would be a millionaire.