People are taking action on YOUR idea right now (and making money from it)

1 Comment Written by Cynthia on December 29, 2011 – 11:09 am

Back in 2005/2006, I felt inspired to develop a local city portal. It would be E-P-I-C.

I had a group of friends from university who were infected by my enthusiasm and became eager to become writers for my website. They sent me sample articles for me to review…I was feeling all giddy because I like critiquing articles (the power was going to my head!).

One section I was most excited about was the street style section. I used to buy Japanese fashion magazines and thought it was cool that they snapped pictures of people on the streets to show off what they were wearing.

This led to an ah-ha moment: Wouldn’t it be cool to do the same?  I could take it one step further and divide the pictures into categories so people could get inspiration of what to wear every day, and find out where the street models bought their accessories and clothes. You could also vote on the outfits, and then the top rated ones would be displayed on the front page.

I also planned out a section that would use the pixel script for local restaurants, and other businesses who could pin themselves on the map.

I felt like I was onto something new. I had the support of people at my school, and had plenty of willing contributors.

And then, the project slowly disappeared into oblivion. I can’t pinpoint the exact reason. It was not the lack of resources; I had everything I needed to develop the site fully. Was it a break up? Was it school? Was it self-sabotage? I don’t know but I filed everything away into my “ideas” folder never to think about it again…until….I came across Chictopia.

My jaw dropped. That was my idea! MINE!!

Later I discovered Lookbook which was very similar in concept.

Then this month, I discovered Chicisimo. At this point, I get really curious about all these sites that had copied my brilliant idea and do a Whois lookup on both websites to see when they were registered.

Chictopia was registered in 2007, Chicisimo in 2008. That was 1-2 years after the idea came to me.

What does this mean?

If you get an idea, hundreds if not thousands have the EXACT SAME IDEA, no matter how brilliant or revolutionary you think it is.

Only a few will actually take action on it, and even less will be successful.

It might make you feel a sense of importance to have a cool idea come to you. It might make you feel – hey I got plenty of time to do it and perfect it before releasing it. Bahhh it can wait.

Don’t. People are taking action Right This Minute! On YOUR idea!

Follow your intuition.

For example, I made $200 one weekend after taking action on an email I got from — you wouldn’t believe it — my SPAM folder.

Yes, someone was spamming my email with some lame business opportunity and it ended up in the spam folder. I was about to empty the entire folder when I noticed a headline that caught my eye: “Which Paypal account should I send your money to?”

I literally had an imaginary boner.

So I paid a fee to join the program, promoted it, recouped my initial cost, and made a profit. (Btw, if you’re thinking of asking me which program it is… don’t. It *was* good in between 2007-2009, but I no longer recommend it as the owner no longer updates the membership area.)

Normally this is EXACTLY the type of e-mail I’d delete and brush off as spammy and scammy, but sometimes it IS the right opportunity… you have to listen to that inner voice. (This is different from the voice of desperation which clouds your judgement and makes you buy stupid things you regret, leading you into a deeper financial hole.)

Once you hesitate or take too long to decide, the moment passes and somebody else seizes your opportunity.

If you feel it is right (and you are positive it’s not out of desperation), take action on it. Or someone else will and make loads of money that was SUPPOSED TO BE YOURS!

Seriously, make 2012 your bitch. Go on, my friend!