Think Bigger. Much Bigger.

Whatever you’re thinking, think bigger. – Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO

When thinking of or developing your startup idea, the overwhelming advice now is to “get out of the building” and do honest-to-goodness research with potential customers.

Intuitively, you’d think that what should happen is that your idea would narrow down, right? This was what I thought: that as the “big idea” comes into contact with research and reality, you’d have to scale your plans down and “get real.”

What I’m finding out though, is the reverse.

Think Facebook. When Zuckerberg originally thought of “TheFacebook”, he was targeting only universities and campuses. As he developed his startup, he began to realize something: this could be bigger. Much bigger.

So he then went for it.

When we started STORM in 2005, I thought:

This could be a nice sideline business for me. 

Then as we developed our startup, did more research, and talked to our customers, we realized one thing: this could be bigger. Much bigger.

There are SUCH great opportunities out there. Getting out of the building will make you say things like:

No one’s done this yet?

or

This is the only thing in the market right now?

or

I could do a MUCH better job than this!

The funny thing I’m realizing is that my mind was wired to think in a narrow fashion. Perhaps this is the mindset that corporate life gave me: silos, rules, limited scopes. Stepping out into the world, I brought with me the same frameworks and limitations. We all need to trash these and dream big. Dream bigger. 

Could your idea work for ANOTHER industry? Instead of competing, why not go for a blue ocean? (create a market) Instead of a “safe” sideline why not innovate? Instead of being a player, why not be the best? Instead of local, why not go global? Instead of introducing, why don’t you consider disrupting?

Reach for the stars. Who knows, you might get the moon in the process.