When ideas are not enough, create a company

My niche was the education system. I had ideas for improving it. But I could no longer be content with just ideas.

Over the course of most of the decade, my activity was somehow connected with higher education, which further strengthened my long-standing conviction that had arisen during the times of my own studies: the entire education system is a wasteful mess.
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Few of those involved in it like this. Students and teachers complain about each other. Both are happy after the end of the next couple. Employers believe that graduates do not have the necessary knowledge to work, graduates do not feel that they are ready to start a career, and everyone spends the money of others with unknown results and without any responsibility.

“I see an opportunity”

I spoke openly about the problems associated with a fall in the value of accreditation, student frustration, artificially stimulating the flow of taxpayer funds in various forms, artificially stimulating the needs of the labor market through licensing requirements and imposing restrictions on workers. I wrote and participated in the discussion of the danger posed by various typical stories from people from the world of education. These stories make you feel guilty, make you ashamed and intimidate you to buy a service worth thousands of dollars, which in fact does not bring joy and benefit.

I watched the emergence of massive open online courses and how information became more accessible. I heard the statements of entrepreneurs that they do not care about diplomas. I presented much more efficient, client-oriented, accountable, productive, and encouraging ways of providing education, experience, confidence, skills, and connections for young people. In short, I had ideas.

One of the problems of ideas - they have virtually no price. I could talk about my ideas, people - about my own. It would be possible to arrange an endless mess or argue until blue in the face, whose ideas are better. But who cares? No one can be called a winner - as long as all this remains just empty chatter. This thought came to me in one exciting, frightening day. If I am right about problems with higher education, if my ideal alternative is valid as valuable as I think, then I need to invest my money in it. I need to implement it. That's exactly what I did.

Bring the idea to life

I created a company that identifies smart, hard-working young people into great enterprises while they get a full-fledged education along with technical skills, basic training, humanities, individual training (mentoring) and own projects of practical value.

It was my most frightening act in life. Frightening uncertainty.

Suddenly, from a guy with opinions and ideas about education, entrepreneurship and career, I turned into a guy who will succeed or be defeated, depending on the correctness of these very ideas. I learned that critics love to insult ideas, but they even more like to criticize ideas that have become reality. But as soon as I started Praxis, everything became clear for me. I played by the new rules. I no longer cared for the critic, I was interested in my clients.

When have something to lose

Such a change of priorities is one of the most correct things in the world. Economist Nassim Taleb talks about the concept of participation of the company's management in its capital, and every entrepreneur knows exactly what he means. Nothing sharpens your attention and clarifies thoughts, like an understanding of the fact that something more than pride in being right is at stake. Nothing helps in obtaining valuable information from people who have a completely different opinion than the need to develop and implement an idea.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a man of ideas. Being philosophized is my favorite pastime. But the best philosophers are those who do not limit themselves only to mental experiments, but also test their ideas in practice. Ideas that seem to be winning in mental models are not enough. Those thinkers who have stepped further and turned their ideas into reality have real influence.

Entrepreneurship is a philosophy in action.

Use the extra value test

Attempts to turn each idea into a business model serve as good training. Do you think that people eat too many carbohydrates, and thanks to your diet they would be happier and health better? If you are right, then your design has value. Can you convey this value to others and calculate your income? Do you think people watch television too much? What kind of need are they trying to satisfy, and what other services could be a better alternative? Can you create them? And sell?

I do not claim that the construction of hypotheses without further action is worth nothing. All actions begin with imagination. I believe that every idea can be sharpened if you force yourself to present it as a model that creates a certain value. Not every idea makes a profit, and that's fine. At the same time, monetization is not a lower form of life and does not apply to curses. This is nothing but a form of presenting the value that your idea creates for people. The practice of implementing theories in the form of business models will reveal the weaknesses of the idea or demonstrate that it is incredibly good - so much so that you will have an overwhelming desire to realize it.

Less talk

Nowadays, there are endless possibilities for entrepreneurial activity, and turning an idea into a business today can be easier and cheaper than ever. But the boundless ocean of information and the abundance of sites where ideas can be discussed, presents difficulties for those who like to reflect and persuades us to remain forever in the world of speculations, avoiding the realization of our ideas.

If you want to change the world and your own life, then you can’t stop at ideas. The rebirth of these ideas into what causes the response of the market is the most difficult journey that you can think of. But believe me, it's worth it. Just get started!