Page 132 - The Business Idea Factory: A World-Class System for Creating Successful Business Ideas

“100, 20, 5, 1” rule

Once you have generated hundreds of ideas you may ask, “How can I figure out which of them will
become successful?” The “100, 20, 5, 1” rule says that after going through the list of 100 ideas, you
reduce it to the 20 most promising ones on your own. After asking for the opinion of your creative
buddy and the small group of potential customers, you further reduce the list to 5 ideas worth
implementing. After implementing 5 ideas, 4 of them either fail or give mediocre results but 1
becomes incredibly successful. Of course 100, 20, 5, 1 are only ballpark figures, but they give a good
estimate of what it takes to get one idea that will make a significant positive impact on your business.
Some of the greatest ideas in business history were selected using the “100, 20, 5, 1” rule.