Consulting on the Side to Fulltime: A Case Study

Doc Blackburn had a job he loved and never planned on leaving. He worked for the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, in cybersecurity. When he spoke about his job, and he often did, I was jealous even though I had abandoned the idea of traditional employment, the “job” idea, happily many decades ago. ...

What's more important, a great idea or a great team when undertaking a new venture - it could be a startup or a significant project or similar?

Kenneth G Hartman began his career as an electrical engineer working for food manufacturers like Kraft. After about a decade, shortly after 9/11, he joined his brother in a small #startup in the health care space, where he got interested in transitioning into security. We met shortly afterwards in Madison, Wisconsin and we hit it off.Ken has since gone on to work in infosec for internet giants in Silicon Valley, started consulting on the side, and eventually has become a full time consultant.

How important is a great idea when you are doing something new, whether it's a startup or something else significant?

Most people think the "great idea" is essential, and if you have a truly great idea, life will be easy: it'll be easy to get people to join you, get momentum, get funding if you need it and more.

I will argue that a great idea, although "great," is not as important as people think. We will ignore right now that an idea, regardless of how good, is useless unless someone takes action.

Even with a smashingly great idea, and enormous success, that idea will have changed during implementation, it will have morphed.

It did for Android (they were originally making a camera operating system well before Google bought them), Nintendo (paper playing cards), Nokia (started as a paper mill), YouTube (a dating site), and many more.

My opinion: Don't worry about a great idea; go for the Big Execution!