The Secret Truth About Executing Great Ideas

In this high-energy talk from the 99U Conference 2012, Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect, shows how relentless trial and error is the distinguishing characteristic of the greatest artists, scientists and entrepreneurs: coming up with an idea, executing it on a small scale, then refining it.

The reason is that humans are not very good at predicting which ideas will succeed. Nearly every major breakthrough has been preceded by a string of failed or misguided executions. As Johansson puts it, quoting Churchill: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

His learning points: innovative ideas all look obvious after the fact, and you can come up with something groundbreaking by combining ideas. Groundbreaking innovators generate and execute far more ideas, so they also fail more than non-innovators. The purpose of a strategy is to convince yourself it works. Above all, you have to get something done: start, focus on the smallest executable step, and more ideas will follow.