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May I suggest a rephrasing for that?

Execution can bring profit. Ideas might not.

History is full of examples of visionaries coming up with ideas that have inspired and fueled others--in some cases whole industries have been founded on these ideas. For instance, Doug Engelbart gave the "Mother of All Demos" in 1968 [1]. It was a proof of concept, but the ideas he talked about were implemented by other companies--who profited from it.

It is unfortunate that we live in a world where ideas hold such little monetary value, but they're most certainly not worthless.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY&t=4s



I dunno, makes sense to me. Your idea is worthless to ones self (monetary) if you do not leverage/execute it.


Of course you need both execution and ideas.

But let's say you have very good ideas but you're a mediocre executioner.

1. Could you find a very lucrative job/partnership mostly because of your ideas, and get quality help with the execution ? It's possible.

2. Ideas are easy to steal. Do you have a decent strategy to prevent that from happening ? Those sometimes exist.

3. Not every business sucseeds. Can you try repeatedly ? Maybe, depending on context.


"Ideas are unlikely to have any immediate monetary value until they are executed" is more accurate, but doesn't roll off the tongue so easily.




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