Hey folks.
You’ve all heard it before…
Someone talking about an idea they have…
Everyone around them nodding in agreement.
And then the inevitable one-liner…
“Ya know what they say… If you build it, they will come.”
Oh, really?
Who is “they”? And what did they build?
Because a lot of things that get built are not worth building — and the builder finds this out when nobody comes.
Happens all the time.
People dream up ideas of things they make, build, design, sell, and package up as a business — and the idea SUCKS.
Nobody comes.
No buyers, anyway.
And there’s nothing wrong with this. It’s part of the process.
I’ve had tons of bad ideas.
Anyone who calls themselves an entrepreneur has built tons of things that nobody came to.
I have no problem with folks building stuff that nobody comes to.
I have a problem with the false wisdom that people will come if you build it.
The truth is, if you build it, people probably won’t come.
Especially not at first.
If you build it, people are not just magically showing up.
Even if it’s a GREAT idea.
You need to build it, and you need to publish it, and you need to promote it (to the right people, at the right time, through the right medium).
And then you need to stick with it.
And you’ll probably need to tear it back apart and rebuild it.
A lot of times, it’ll end up being something completely different than what you first built.
Sometimes you’ll build it, lose interest in it, and it’ll just sit in a closet or in a digital folder on your computer and gather dust.
Other times you’ll build it and about 12 people will come — but they’re your grandma, your Aunt Martha, your neighbor, and your old 5th grade teacher, Mr. Finkelstein, who follows you on Twitter.
But that’s it.
Nobody else comes.
Then you either need to rebuild it… or move on to the next build.
Eventually, you’ll build something that — after several rebuilds — has enough people coming to it that it makes all the failed builds worth it.
Most folks don’t build enough stuff to get to this point.
But this is usually what it takes to get to the point where lots of people are coming to the thing you’ve built.
So, anyway, that’s my rant for today.
If you build it, they will not come.
If you rebuild it, they still probably won’t come.
If you scrap it and build something else, they still might not come.
If you scrap that and build yet another thing, they might come.
When “they” come, you will probably have to rebuild it based on what “they” had to say.
And if you keep doing this…
Build. Rebuild. Scrap it. Start new. Build. Rebuild. Rebuild. Rebuild…
THEN… they will come.
Eventually, they will come.
They just won’t come the first time you build the thing.
Contrary to what Aunt Martha has to say.
Rest easy knowing she’s wrong — and that if you keep building it, then they will come.
Peace!
