THE IDEA MATRIX
All of the quadrants of this matrix are viable ways to have ideas and make money. Some are riskier than others.
1. The Idea Matrix
2. The bottom axis
The bottom axis starts off when you are working solely on the ideas of others.
This is not necessarily bad but it basically means you are an employee and you are an idea slave to someone else’s whims.
You could get fired. Your boss could have bad ideas and go broke. There is no loyalty. You are not in control. You feel “stuck” all the time.
On the top right is when you are an idea machine: you are non-stop working on good ideas that help the lives of others. You mind dips into dreams and you make them reality or art or abundance.
3. Why did Mark Zuckerberg not sell Facebook when he was offered a billion dollars?
Peter Thiel underlined this for me when he told me the story of Mark Zuckerberg turning down Yahoo’s offer of $1 billion. Zuckerberg would’ve made $250 million. Peter wanted him to take, or at least consider, the idea.
Zuckerberg decided in ten minutes time: “No”.
As Peter put it: ideas were more valuable to Mark than money.
Not everyone is going to create Facebook. I never will. But everyone could create abundance in this upper right corner. Wealth is the side effect of being an idea machine.
4. The bottom right
In the bottom right: where you have bad ideas but you are giving ideas to others.
Many professions exist here: lawyers and stockbrokers are the most common. Tons of ideas but they are usually bad.
This is not such a horrible thing for society. But it requires the customers to be aware of the hidden agendas of the lawyers and brokers (the fees, being charged by the hour, etc).
Not all lawyers and brokers are bad. But their job is to give you a ton of ideas and hope for the best.
“Where Are The Customers Yachts?” is a famous classic book about this corner.
When I’ve been a consultant for companies trying to figure out what to do with their websites I was mostly in this category. Lots of ideas, most of them bad, but I needed the client to say “yes” so I can charge for more websites.
Getting HBO to pay $75,000 for a three page website about Dennis Miller was my crowning achievement as a bottom-righter.
5. The top left
At the top left is when you are working on good ideas but based off of other people’s ideas. BUT, they may still use good ideas to improve the earlier ideas. This is a powerful spot. Whoever created Gmail on top of Google is in this category.
Whoever buys a losing business and turns it around is here. There is a lot of money here.
I was in this category when I worked at HBO. I was initially hired to do some basic computer programming for them (idea slave) but then I started pitching them ideas that I could do for their website.
I was still under their umbrella but I was able to become an “entre-ployee" by working on good ideas within the umbrella idea of “HBO”.
I made more money this way, had some fun, got some promotions, but I was still an employee.
6. What's in the middle?
"Disobedience" or "Disruption" (and sometimes "Disappointment")
See in the middle where it says “disobedience”? I don’t mean like a kid running away from home for the first time. Because the kid always comes back. I came back. Again and again.
This is where you break free from the system. Where you realize that everything is a stage set and now it’s time to get to work.
This is where you say “sorry” instead of asking for permission.
7. The top right
This is where you come up with ideas and send them to people. People ask me, "why share your ideas? Maybe they will get stolen?"
Of course they will! But some won't and this is where wealth is really created.
By sharing ideas, you show that you are abundant in ideas. You become the source where everyone goes when they need ideas.
I call this "The Google Method". When you first go to google.com and say, "can you tell me something about motorcycles", they say back at you, "We know nothing about motorcycles but here are ten sites that we thing can tell you a lot about motorcycles and, by the way, here are two sites that are paying us to say they know a lot about motorcycles."
Google (the site) measures its success by how quickly people LEAVE the site.
And then next time you need to learn about something, say, "what's the best phone?" you don't go first to a phone website. You go to Google. Everyone returns to the source. And if you are the one with all the ideas, you're the source everyone turns to.
This technique was good enough to make Google a trillion dollar company. So even .001% of that might be good.
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