Execution vs. Vision (Ideas)
I’m blessed to have a wife who has lots of great ideas. She comes up with all sorts of creative ideas to solve problems. Some of them are websites; some are actual physical inventions; some are hybrids of both; some are neither. But the point is that she has a lot of ideas.
The problem with having a lot of ideas is finding that someone else has “stolen” your idea. Or that someone has already executed on your idea. Or even being afraid of someone “stealing” your idea. For this reason, I have often tell Charlene that the value of an idea pales in comparison with the value of being able to execute on that idea. Based on this article, I think Tech Crunch agrees with me. The title of the article is actually posed as a question rather than a definitive statement. But I think the question is rather rhetorical.
Based on the evidence given, it’s abundantly clear that the answer is yes, execution is more important that vision. I think this paragraph sums it up nicely:
Napster changed the music world, but it was iTunes that profited off of it. Google was one of the last companies in the Internet bubble to try their hand at building a search engine—and was laughed out of some VCs’ offices as a result. Palm pioneered the smart phone, not Blackberry. And Friendster was the social network pioneer before Mark Zuckerberg even entered college.
Fortunately for her, Charlene married one of the least visionary guys around. I may lack the vision and creativity needed to come up with ideas, but I’ve got an abundance of practicality and ability to execute. I’ll make it happen. It seems to be just one of the ways that God, in His sovereignty, brings two people with different gifts together in a synergistic relationship where they can really complement each other.
For that reason, I’d say Charlene and I make a pretty good pair.