999 Business Ideas in 18,949 Words

Seth Godin recently posted Hamster Burial Kits & 998 Other Business Ideas which hit my radar from many eager entrepreneurs.  Not so fast, ideas are only thoughts.  Without solid execution, the idea is worth nothing.  Want more proof?  Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker piece about “simultaneous discovery” provides a lot of historical background to support the theory of execution over ideation.  Below is a simple analysis to see what words are being used simultaneously to see if any insights can be gained from the ideas generated.

Let’s  start with the statement excerpted from the original post:

Ideas are a dime a dozen. The money is in the execution.

Need proof? For Seth Godin’s Alternative MBA program, this week the nine of us came up with 111 business ideas each. But ideas are only valuable when someone (like you) makes something happen.

5 Quick Thoughts

I only included important words by removing words like “a”, “the”, and the like from the complete list.

Statistics on Words

Top Words in an Idea

DISCLAIMER – The intention was to make this quick so I didn’t spend a tremendous amount of time worrying about what words to exclude/combine.  I’d appreciate constructive adjustments in the comments!

#14 – ‘service’ – 133 counts – (0.4%)

#16 – ‘company’ – 119 counts – (0.36%)

#18 – ‘people’ – 113 counts – (0.35%)

#22 – ‘Online’ – 78 counts – (0.24%)

#32 – ‘website’ – 59 counts – (0.19%)

#34 – ‘Get’ – 57 counts – (0.18%)

#44 – ‘site’ – 46 counts – (0.15%)

#46 – ‘business’ – 44 counts – (0.14%)

#49 – ‘etc.’ – 39 counts – (0.13%)

#57 – ‘store’ – 31 counts – (0.1%)

#60 – ‘Consulting’ – 30 counts – (0.1%)

#62 – ‘video’ – 29 counts – (0.1%)

#65 – ‘app’ – 28 counts – (0.09%)

#65 – ‘Create’ – 28 counts – (0.09%)

#65 – ‘Help’ – 28 counts – (0.09%)

#65 – ‘iPhone’ – 28 counts – (0.09%)

#71 – ‘digital’ – 27 counts – (0.09%)

#71 – ‘go’ – 27 counts – (0.09%)

#74 – ‘allows’ – 26 counts – (0.09%)

#74 – ‘book’ – 26 counts – (0.09%)

#74 – ‘way’ – 26 counts – (0.09%)

#77 – ‘based’ – 25 counts – (0.08%)

#77 – ‘school’ – 25 counts – (0.08%)

#77 – ‘want’ – 25 counts – (0.08%)

#81 – ‘local’ – 24 counts – (0.08%)

#82 – ‘one’ – 23 counts – (0.08%)

#84 – ‘find’ – 22 counts – (0.07%)

#84 – ‘kids’ – 22 counts – (0.07%)

#88 – ‘companies’ – 21 counts – (0.07%)

#88 – ‘food’ – 21 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘best’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘car’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘home’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘phone’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘set’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘students’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘Users’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#100 – ‘don’t’ – 19 counts – (0.06%)

#100 – ‘good’ – 19 counts – (0.07%)

#100 – ‘more’ – 19 counts – (0.07%)

#100 – ‘new’ – 19 counts – (0.07%)

#100 – ‘restaurant’ – 19 counts – (0.07%)

#100 – ‘software’ – 19 counts – (0.07%)

#100 – ‘time’ – 19 counts – (0.07%)

Link to Data Files extracted from Seth Godin’s site

February 27, 2009 • Tags: , , , , • Posted in: Content
  • John Rood

    Thanks for putting together these stats. What struck me about this list is how many small opportunities exist that seem to be “no-brainers” but just lack someone willing to put together the business model. My favorite example of this was pre-packaged school supplies. How has no one put that together?

  • John Rood

    Thanks for putting together these stats. What struck me about this list is how many small opportunities exist that seem to be “no-brainers” but just lack someone willing to put together the business model. My favorite example of this was pre-packaged school supplies. How has no one put that together?