My challenge is that I don't have a problem with the ambiguity behind knowing what to do, (I love it actually) it is just getting the cahones to say, "YES, I will commit to this uncertainty, if it kills me."
To me, off the top of my head, I'd say you need to first focus on the community that you'll be targeting. People want something better that makes their life easier. I think the bigger challenge you'll have is the credibility of responses. I'd almost suggest a way for people looking for an answer to evaluate the answers they've found. I'd take a look at www.qaboom.com. A similar idea, but it is targeted to students. The question I would ask myself, is, who are the early adopters. If you have some early adopters, what is going to make it worth while for them? What if the person tags their question with a category and another person subscribes to the RSS of that category...being able to see what others are asking and then seeing the real time responses is going to be powerful. Just some thoughts. I'd love to be a beta tester for you. Let me know. Honestly, you might want to look at a model like about.com. Find some experts who already belong to a community and give them a % of revenues. just some thoughts, I think it is a great idea! Good luck with it!
Figures can lie and liars figure. The reality is that if you are looking for some type of objective authority, then use statistics. People are relationships not numbers, though the issue is looking at the numbers representative of the relationships. I find it amusing at how the web marketing world continues to look at the wrong numbers.
Yah, who would have thought that a guy in the 1920's would write a master thesis suggesting the idea that you could transfer information electronically in 1's and 0's (claude E. Shannon).
What I find more interesting is that it wasn't the idea that took time to develop, but the technology. Without people dreaming and working on ideas, we wouldn't be where we are. The beauty of the night sky lies in the constellations, not the indivdiual stars. If there was only one star, we'd get bored, but individuals stars are fun to look at because they increase the total beauty of the constellation.
So, if you want to change the world, shine like a star and belong to a constellation.
The allure of a small business is that it is not entrenched in keeping the status quo, but excitedly endeavoring to ask the next big question, "why the hell not?"
Whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't, you are right. --attributed to Henry Ford.
Entrepreneurs make it because they choose to, not because someone gives them the opportunity. The opportunity is always there, the question is whether or not you choose to make it happen. I've been reading "founders at work" and it surprises me that their opportunities were where they least expected it.
The wanting of something never creates the appearance of it, but the continued wanting of it. Life is the dialectic of choosing to create and being surprised by what ensues.
It is the ominous Hal, asking the question, "Are you there Dave? Dave, what are you doing?" The breach into the unknown this is mystifying and satisfying at the same time. May all your future red buttons to that instill confidence.
The problem with planning is that it oversimplifies your lived experience. Very few people live from step to step, they live by their desire, therefore the statement, "the best performers seesaw between "ideas" and "actions" is more of linear effect. You have an idea, you want it to become real, so you try, if some actions to get you to the idea, the key is knowing what actions best produce the idea. An now we are back to planning, which people do more subconsciously than consciously, and let's face it, sometimes you just need to cogitate on an idea for a few months and then it strikes you what to do to make it real. I think the more important question is how do you not loose sight of the ideas you want to make real?