Execution is everything because everyone has ideas. Few execute on them. The best way to execute your ideas is by putting in the work every single day. Work on your idea muscle and think of ideas on a daily basis. Once you find the one idea you want to move forward with, give it everything you’ve got.
When I was in college, I thought of emojifying your persona onto a computer, phone, or any digital interface. It was for our final school project from a computer science class my friends and I were taking. We thought it was a genius idea but we never executed on it.
Then we see Snapchat acquire Looksery for $150M, a company who did exactly what we thought of. We thought of the idea before the company was founded. And yet Looksery gets a payout day for their start up. Yet we are left with nothing but to dream about what if that happened to us.
However, in practice, that wouldn’t have mattered. Execution is everything. we wouldn’t even had the time, talent, capital, or the willpower to follow through with the idea. Looksery was just in a better position to execute on the idea because they had the available resources.
Everyone has ideas and it’s cheap to think of even good and viable ideas. However, those ideas don’t come into fruition because execution is much harder than thinking of the idea in the first place. The ideas that we think of are meaningless if no one ever has a chance to use those ideas.
That is why executing is key. Our thoughts are meaningless.
Execution is Everything: 3 Additional Reasons Why
Below are 3 additional reasons why execution is everything. Too many people are frustrated when they see someone copy their ideas but they never even implemented the idea to their own benefit at all!
1) Everyone Has Ideas
There’s not a single person on Earth who haven’t had one good idea in their life. Everyone has good ideas that society can benefit from. Yet few even have the resources to act on them. Action is what matters in life, not our imagination, not our wants. But action.
How else can you use your ideas to make the world a better place if you never execute on your ideas? Execution is everything because ideas are cheap. I had a business idea to buy discounts products and sell on eBay. I actually used that idea to my benefit.
Although I made a couple hundred dollars throughout the months, I couldn’t execute it to success. I didn’t know how to juggle that business with college at the time. It was just too hard to figure out how to balance everything. Everyone has million dollar business ideas.
Few can make them a raging success.
2) Execution is Everything Because Ideas are Theoretical
You shape your world through your imagination and mindset. That’s ground zero of where everything starts. However, if you never see your ideas through and execute on your ideas, then it is meaningless. Not only can you not sell the idea, no one else can even use it.
Execution is everything because we live in reality and not in anyone’s thoughts. When we think of ideas, we think of the finished product and not the actual process it takes to get to that finished product. It takes much more steps than we realize.
Theory is not the same thing as practice because the real world is what matters in the end. No one cares about anyone’s idea of a utopian society or anyone’s idea of how something should be done. Customers only care about products that you show to them and what exists.
If customers can’t see the product with their own eyes, it’s meaningless.
3) Customers Care About Results
Customers don’t care about the effort it takes. We don’t care why our Amazon package was a day late, we just care that it was a day late. Execution is everything because customers only care about the results. Not the effort.
Back when we transported ourselves using horses and carriages, customers wanted faster horses. But one man thought of an idea to change the entire world around him and invented the modern day car. It revolutionized the transportation industry forever.
Once he showed customers the finished product, it enamored customers so much that the company made billions of dollars. Your ideas are just your inputs and thoughts. Your actions and finished product tells the entire story.
That’s all customers care about in the end. It’s why they dish out their hard earned money to you.
Execution is Everything: 9 Ways to Execute Your Ideas
So now that we know why execution is everything, below are the 9 ways to actually use that principle to your advantage.
1) Put in the Hours Every Day
No one ever got to the top because they didn’t put in the effort and hours. The ones who achieved greatness got there because they put in as much effort as they possibly could. Execution is everything and it’s made even better when you put in the work every single day.
There are millions of people who would love to be in your position right now. How are you going to compete against their hunger, drive, and motivation? Unfortunately, you have to put in the work every day and execute on your plans and ideas.
it’s a dog eat dog world where the creative destruction principle reigns supreme. If you want your ideas to be used in the real world, then you have to put in effort to make it happen in the real world. I personally want to be a millionaire. That’s an idea that I have.
I’m working every single day to get there because I know effort will breed results one day. Compound effort is a powerful concept.
2) Accept that Execution is Everything
There’s no crying or being frustrated if someone else executes on your ideas. I had the idea of using facial recognition software to bring emojified personas to the digital world. However, I wasn’t there to execute on the idea. I didn’t feel bad other founders made millions from the idea.
What would’ve happened with me was I would’ve figured out how hard it is to get funding, hire employees, and market the products all across the world. Let alone code the technology. Execution is everything. Accept that ideas are dime a dozen.
There’s no point in getting mad someone “stole” your idea. You can’t prove you were the only person on Earth who had the idea in the first place. Let alone be the first one to think of it. When you tune out the distractions of envious emotions, you can get right back to work.
Finishing the idea is a much more rewarding venture than sitting on the couch and just thinking of them.
3) Keep a Journal of Your Ideas
Although execution is everything, that doesn’t mean ideas are nothing. When you keep an idea journal list, you can then pick and choose later which ones are viable and which ones aren’t. There are many times when I have a Tweet idea or a blog post idea.
Only for that idea to completely vanish and forget just 10 seconds later. Good ideas may come by quickly and pass by just as quickly. Even though I keep a journal of my ideas, that doesn’t mean I capture all of them. It’s difficult to capture everything without forgetting at times.
Execution is impossible if you don’t have an idea in the first place. When you work on your idea muscle, more ideas come to you. Then you decide which ones to eliminate. It’s how I like to Tweet. There’s many tweets that I keep in my draft folder.
Then I eliminate the ones I don’t think are high enough quality.
4) Focus on One Thing at a Time
Execution is everything but you can drown in opportunity. I started Twitter and this blog at the same time. That means I have to divide my time between the two and I can’t figure out how to be the best at one thing. It took me two years to be the best at both.
Imagine if I took one year to master this blog then the next year to master Twitter. My progress would be so far ahead than where it is right now. Multitasking is not only difficult, it’s virtually impossible if you want quality results.
When you focus on one thing at a time and can give your attention to one subject, you become a master at it. It’s better to be a master at one thing than to be mediocre at 5 things. You can’t compete against other masters when you’re mediocre.
the best companies in the world focus on their core businesses before ancillary businesses.
5) Track Your Progress
Execution is everything. Therefore, you need a map and guideline of the direction you’re heading to. You need to track your progress because you would be lost otherwise. You can’t execute on your goals if you don’t even know where you’re going.
Every quarter, take stock and review if you’re trending in the right direction. I personally like to review weekly to see what went right and what needed improvement. What isn’t measured can’t be improved, and that works with just about anything.
You’re focusing your most valuable resource in the world to execute on your ideas, which is your time. When you’re investing your most valuable resource in the world, it’s a good idea to take stock and see how you’re allocating your resources.
Efficient work will always win over hard work. Especially when it comes to tracking your progress. Putting in as much hours as you can is not the answer.
6) Be Patient
You can’t expect results from day 1. High expectations are what kills many new projects. They put in daily work for six months straight and give up when they don’t see any results. It took me two years to break even with my blog and an even longer time to earn any money from Twitter.
However, I showed up every day. The minimum amount of time to invest in a project is four years. If you can invest sweat equity into a venture instead of money, then you need at least four years to master it. Execution is everything but it doesn’t happen on the first day.
Many entrepreneurs took ten years before their business took off. Ten years of full time work. I’m working part time on my side hustle ventures, so it makes sense it takes me four years before it comes into fruition. Even at the two year mark of minimal results, I didn’t give up.
Patience is just a part of the process. There’s no reason to have high expectations in the first six months. It takes time.
7) Execution is Everything: Never Give Up
Your 100th rejection doesn’t matter. Get back up. You never know if your 101st try is the one that changes everything. When I was in college, I applied to 100+ companies each year to secure an internship. It’s how I secured an internship in my Sophomore year.
I got insanely lucky because the company missed the deadline and had very few choices to hire for their internship program. It was my last chance at securing one for the year!
Even more so, companies only swoop up Juniors for their internship programs. You should never give up if you know the idea is proven to be a success. Execution is everything. If someone else already got to success before you, then you know the idea works.
it’s just a matter of how and what actions to take to get to the top. There’s always a way to get to the top. Starting from the bottom and ending at the top stories exist for a reason. It’s more than possible for everyone. That doesn’t mean that it’s not difficult.
Therefore, you should never give up on your efforts. You have no idea how much I wanted to give up Twitter before I decided to write one more tweet that went viral.
8) Figure Out How It’s Been Done Already
There is absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel. Reinventing the wheel is a waste of time. There’s no one who successfully reinvented the wheel. Everyone just knows how to take an existing system and make it better. Execution is everything but that doesn’t mean you need originality.
Even the best businesses get inspiration from other businesses. There is not a single billionaire who truly figured it out by themselves. All of them got inspiration and ideas from others to execute with their own business. Steve Jobs got help from Hewlett Packard for his start.
While brute copying is highly frowned upon and in some cases illegal, there’s nothing wrong with figuring out how it’s been done and improving it by 1%. The richest people in the world saw what was done currently and just figured out how to make it more efficient by 1%.
It’s the power of the 1% improvement that matters. Dramatic changes only happen after consistent 1% daily improvements.
9) Give Yourself Breaks
You can’t produce all the time. If there’s a weekend you want to take off, then you need to take it off. Humans can’t work 24/7. We HAVE to take breaks. Execution is everything but that doesn’t mean execution is life. There’s more to life than productivity.
Your time can be used in much better ways than on productivity all the time. I’ve been working hard at blogging for 2.5 years straight. I dedicated every weekend to blogging. After I put in my dues, I took it much easier. I already know what it takes to write a quality blog post.
Even in building my net worth journey that I’m executing on. I take breaks throughout and break my personal finance rules. It’s what lets me keep going with my blog. I bought a brand new MacBook Pro for $1,000, all-in in 2022.
It was the first laptop I bought in almost a decade. When I saw the shiny new laptop, I felt happy. Breaks and rewards are necessary.
Execution is Everything in Your Life
Ideas are cheap. Everyone has good ideas. But only the few truly execute on those ideas well enough to put them ahead of someone else. Execution is everything in your life. In areas that matter. You may have the best idea in the entire world but it doesn’t matter if no one knows about it.
A device that cures cancer is meaningless if it sits in the basement all the time. It’s why marketing is so important in business and life. You’re executing on your ideas and convincing people to buy into your idea. Which is not easy to do.
It’s difficult to convince people to change their routine even if the new routine is more efficient. It’s hard to convince people to pay you $1,000,000 even if you’ll make them $10M down the road. People think about the risk of losing a million dollars than the opportunity to make ten million.
Execution is everything because putting an idea from theory to reality is harder than anyone thinks it is. It’s easy to say, “I’ll create a side hustle that generates $1k/mo in passive income” but it’s another to actually execute on the idea.
What side hustle? When will you start? How much capital is needed? Who is your competition? Why are you better than them? There are a million questions to answer before you dive deep into an idea and invest your time into making it a wild success.
It starts with taking action.
Execution is Everything: 9 Ways to Execute Shortlist
- Put in the hours every day
- Accept that execution is everything
- Keep a journal of your ideas
- Focus on one thing at a time
- Track your progress
- Be patient
- Execution is everything: never give up
- Figure out how it’s been done already
- Give yourself breaks
