Some startup ideas are so obviously bad that no one questions passing on them. Others, though, sit in a strange space — outliers that don’t fit the conventional mold. These are the ones that, at first glance, seem weird but intriguing. Maybe your friends and family think you’re crazy for considering them. Maybe even you hesitate, wondering if you’re wasting your time, because not every outlier is a breakthrough, many are just noise.
If that doubt was enough to make you walk away, it was probably for the best, not because the idea itself was bad, but because being an outlier felt overwhelming and/or you never truly believed in it. For an idea to have a chance, you need to believe in it long before others do.
But let’s be clear, this isn’t a rallying cry to blindly chase every unconventional idea. The world is full of overlooked geniuses, but it’s also full of people mistaking distraction for discovery. The challenge isn’t in being unconventional; it’s in knowing whether your idea actually matters. How do you know if you’re on the edge of something real or merely indulging in an illusion? ….
Think of it like a puzzle. Imagine you’re handed 1,000 scattered puzzle pieces without knowing what the final picture looks like. If you try to force pieces together, you’ll only create a distorted image. But if you patiently explore the relationships between pieces, allowing the pattern to reveal itself, the picture gradually takes form. This is how spontaneous order works, both in markets and in idea generation. You can’t dictate innovation through brute force; you have to recognize patterns, piece by piece, as they emerge.
The biggest breakthroughs often began as side projects, curiosities, or unexpected discoveries. Paul Graham has spoken about this extensively: the best founders aren’t just chasing an outcome; they’re consumed by the question itself.
So don’t force an idea into existence. But if the process of exploring an idea feels like oxygen, if abandoning it feels like suffocation, you have your answer. The best ideas aren’t discovered; they evolve. The ones worth pursuing won’t let you walk away.
Order out of chaos…. Where have I heard that before? Anyway, it seems that the ideas for successful startups generally come from deep inside your mind after a long process of dealing, subconsciously with a problem that is of some sort of interest to you. Not really interested in the problem or solution, then not really a candidate for a successful startup! If you have the problem, perhaps a lot of other people have the same problem and if you have the solution, they will probably be very happy to use your solution, for a price.