We all have dreams of the products we’ll launch to wild fanfare. We will write it, and they will come…or not.

Many people enjoy doing the work to build something, and then they want to be done. They don’t want to do the marketing needed. They want to send off their work into the world and sit back accepting the stacks of dollar bills.

Before you embark on any idea, it’s important to figure out what work you’re willing to do to launch your next idea.

What will it take?

Figuring out what you’ll do to launch your idea starts by understanding what it’s going to take to launch your idea to success. That starts with a single question: “What will it take to ____?”

  • What will it take to launch a best selling WordPress Plugin?
  • What will it take to launch a best selling book?
  • What will it take to build a membership community

That means you need to research the existing options. What can you charge for your membership community? How many members will it take to build an income that you can live on? How many members will it take to build that community and feel wealthy while running it?

If you don’t have these answers, then you’re not ready for the next step. If you’ve put some thought into the numbers you need, concerning people and dollars, then you can move on.

What work are you going to do?

Once you know what numbers you need, it’s time to ask yourself how you’re going to get there. I have a friend that wanted to write a book. He didn’t write currently. He didn’t blog. He had some vague idea of what his book might maybe look like.

He mostly talked about sitting in some cabin writing. He wanted the end without all the work it would take to get there. The success without the day in day out grind.

So, are you willing to do the work? Do you want to program, are you going to do the work to learn the languages you need? Are you going to do the work to learn the new ones that come up?

It’s easy to tell yourself yes. I know you believe it so go with yes to start but then start tracking yourself. If you want to write, how many hours a week are you writing? If you have a full-time job, it may not be many hours, but if you’re watching more TV than writing, you’re not on track to be a writer.

Track your time and look back after a month. Don’t make excuses, did you start doing the work it will take? If not, what are you going to change so that you can do the work? What will you give up?

If you’re not going to give up anything, then get honest with yourself and move on to an idea that you will sacrifice for.

This is what the third chapter of The Art of Focus is all about. If you want to know how to find an idea, vet it, and have the time to do it, then The Art of Focus was written for you.

Photo by: curtismchale