Ideas Vs Execution: Which is More Important for Success?

November 13, 2022November 13, 2022 Abdallah Alaili

There is a never ending debate over the importance of ideas in success. In general there is an acceptance that execution is very important to success. However we find that people are split on whether ideas are that important as well.

Execution is more important to success.

A big percentage of people completely discard ideas, arguing that almost every person on earth have at least a business idea, and that these ideas go no where, thus ideas are worthless.
Seen from the perspective of whether “ideas” alone are important for success, then i guess i would agree. Ideas alone can do nothing, do not expect a rich investor to come give you a lot of money to execute your idea.
Also, when the idea is the same, it is always the execution that decides whether the project will be successful or not.
For example, take the Friendster VS. Facebook saga. Many times similar ideas are executed in a very good way, but the best execution end up controlling the market.

Ideas are more important to success.

A small percentage of people do take in consideration the power of ideas, that’s why you find consultants in many fields, not only their experience matter, but also their ideas. That’s also why the practice of brainstorming have become important in many companies. Ideas matter, innovative ideas lead to huge advantages to the companies.
Even if we consider initial business ideas, a developed business idea have it’s own weight and value, as it can contain the essence of the successful company or startup.
And my last argument for the importance of ideas, is the fact that even the best execution of a bad idea will lead to mediocre results.
To give you an example: A friend of mine worked on a startup that create story books about a specific person in the family. I called the idea bad early on, but the friend kept working on it for 2 years, before his team decided to shut down the operations. The idea was bad since day 1, and neither money nor the hard work of a multi-person team helped it succeed.