I saw this today in Fortune Cookies, a compilation of advice from Fortune magazine over the years.

“Avoid wasting too much time and money on ‘trombone oil projects.’  You may turn out the best slide oil in the world, but the entire world needs only a pint of the stuff in a year.”

I was a trombone player for 10 years, and as I recall the same tin of slide oil lasted me the whole 10 years.

YOU CAN TAKE THIS TO THE BANK.   In an organization, it takes about the same about of time and effort to develop and introduce a $10 Million idea as it does to develop and introduce a $100 Million idea.

The larger your business is, the more important the big ideas.  That means that the first stage of screening should really be around target audience and source of volume, not necessarily about how good the idea is.  If 10% of the people who need it buy it and use it regularly, what size business is it?