I’ve been listening to the Founders podcast lately, and one of the stories that really stuck with me is Todd Graves, the founder of Raising Cane’s.
Todd had one very simple idea:
Chicken fingers for everyone.
And for decades, he’s done almost nothing except execute that idea.
He didn’t add hamburgers.
He didn’t add pizza.
He didn’t wake up every six months and decide he needed a more exciting idea.
He just kept working on his “chicken finger dream”…finding better ways to get more chicken fingers into the hands of more people.
Today, Raising Cane’s is worth billions.
That story hit me because I’ve always been very good at coming up with ideas.
The curse of ADHD is that we’re driven by novelty. Coming up with a new idea is exciting.
Executing the same idea for 10, 20, or 30 years?
That’s a different kind of game.
Looking back through my journals, I can see the first appearance of ideas that eventually created millions of dollars.
The Guide to Halton Hills.
The 8 Profit Activators.
Ideas I still use today, 30 years later.
But I can also see plenty of ideas that made it to the first stage of the relay race—and then stayed there while I ran off to find another baton.
Here’s what I wish I had understood earlier:
Once you’ve proven an idea works, you probably don’t need another idea.
You need execution.
You need to package it so the result doesn’t depend on an extraordinary person doing extraordinary things.
You need to make it possible for ordinary people to use your idea and get extraordinary results.
And then you need someone who can take that proven idea and run with it.
That may be you.
Or, if you’re wired more like me, it may be the right partner.
The fortune isn’t always hiding in the next idea.
Sometimes it’s hiding in the idea you already have…but haven’t yet committed to executing all the way.
So the question is:
What’s your chicken finger dream?