In the quickly lengthening history of the technology market, no strategy has been more pervasive among corporate management than the discount of original business ideas. I've heard a ton of variations on the theme, depending on which management guru you talk to, and which era you tune in on.

Examples from various successful luminaries include:

• The 80/20/2 rule, where 80 percent of your ideas are crap, 18 percent will fail, and two percent are worth looking at
• 1000/100/10, which is the same general idea, but dammit, doesn't it sound better with 1-0-0-0?
• That ideas are worth about $10/20/50/12.20 US dollars - that it's all in the execution (and there is some merit here)
  
• Team, Business Model, and Market, or Markets, Team, and Board, or... oh Christ, you get the idea

These are all great ideas, but they're not useful for creating a clear, daily focus - the kind you need to bring big ideas to fruition. And you know, after five startups (five, I think I lost count), I can say honestly that it's not the idea that matters, it's your will, your team, and your willingness to commit completely that matters... It's all about the ham, and I don't even eat pork.

The fact of the matter is that business models are the foundations of any web technology project.

Simplicity for the sake of management courses, not real world benefit

These management models and ideas are designed to encourage the entrepreneur to drive more deeply into the business model, and really consider it's merits and most especially to remain incredibly wary of the downsides, which an entreprenurial mind in the height of planning tends to discount (it's human nature).

Failure to dive deeply often leads to loss of key initial investor money, frustration, and sometimes business failure. If you deconstruct your efforts, learn to bring everything down to a simple, personal, easily related to "other thoughts" focus, with a little wisdom and experience you can drive out a lot of the demons from business plans without relying on pedantic advice or pseudo-sage (though very easy to sound smart with) business advice.

Learning to think for yourself, find a reliable partner to work ideas through with, consider your plans deeply, and listen intently are all key skills that they don't teach you in management courses.

Your success in business is directly attached to what you pay attention to. What you pay attention to is what you create in business, so making sure that you're paying attention to the right things can dramatically shape your play.

Learning how to determine what you pay attention to, that, that is the key to getting anything built, including your startup.

What you need to pay attention to...

• Do what you love. A lot of people I talk to spend a great deal of time talking about business models, analyzing 20 ideas, trying to find the model. But they don't have any damn passion, and that sucks. Money isn't the goal. It's a tool, and a byproduct. Recognize that early, and try to have some wisdom while you change the world - you really did learn all the basics you needed in kindergarten and you should stick with those ideas.
• Engineering is engineering, it's only what you build with it that's valuable. Don't get lost in technology: they're just tools to build things. And Drupal builds amazing social networks (hey, I'm just plugging something that works really great for us)
• Stick to your core business; All of your activities should be directly prioritized and directed from and not towards your core business value.
• Ask for help. If you think you know what you need to know, ask for verification. If you're sure you already know what you need to know, seek another job in a different industry.
• You can't do it all yourself. It's not about you now, and what your capable of, it's about you after launch, you during marketing, you bottlenecking sales, and you failing to have enough free time to lead properly
• Don't engineer for success. Avoid "build it and they will come." Properly map out your business model, understand your market, and know how your going to reach them before you start. It's not about you - your more valuable as a member of a team.
  
• Remember, it's not about market size, it's about sales velocity. You can only do it two ways - slow and high margin, or fast as hell and slightly slower margin. If you don't know your after tax margin on everything your selling before you start selling it, figure it out or you'll fail.
• Gather Support. Even the best ideas can fail if you don't have the right backing. Often, getting the right people involved, either as the form of a board, advisor, co-founder, or employee or contractor makes all the difference.
• Delegate as much as you can. Calculate your own value as much as possible. Consider your time after launch - it's probably worth $150/hr or more. Act accordingly. Don't waste your time on things that aren't worth that. If you can't delegate, outsource. If you absolutely can't delegate or outsource, then do it. But make sure your todo list is achievable...
• Make a daily and weekly task list. Roll this list up to a larger list that includes execution of your entire business plan, or at least what's conceivable and has a solid "done" point. Order your tasks by what's fastest, most easily accomplished, highest business value, and save the hard stuff for later - you'll make more progress, spend less money, and get more done early, which is often all that matters when it comes to getting to profiable revenues.
• Have a good business plan. Make sure you put enough detail into it so that you can steer the company clearly. At the same time, move fast, so you might want to forget the business plan and write it on a napkin and write a formal business plan with a consulting agency who specializes in business plans later. Entrepreneurs actually do both, and generally succeed. Make the right choice for you, but make sure you plan your work, work your plan, and don't waste the time of investors because you won't get a second shot with the ones that matter.
  
• Ship early and ship often. Cut as many features as you possibly can. When you've cut as much as you think you can, cut at least 10 more features and make them the first to add after launch.
• Seek models. Others have done it before, and often know what you're about to err on. You can save a lot of pain, money, time, and sometimes really important things like family suffering by stepping away from the business activities and finding someone who can give you a little hard earned advice.
• Keep your business plan and your engineering connected at all times. Mistake number one is that most people get lost in the process of building things, and don't stop to ask the very simple question, "How does this make money?" Or at least, "How does this drive the fundamentals of my business plan."

And:

• Most business advice is bullshit; What you do manage to hear thats quality you probably won't listen to anyways (most people don't, it's ok, you'll learn it the hard way, then look back at stuff you read or heard 18-24 months ago, and go, "Dammit!"). You don't have time to read this. Get back to work - your competition is right on your backside.

Finally:

• The way that business advice is "sold" makes it impossibly difficult to tell the good stuff from the bad stuff. If you don't find someone relating your core efforts directly to your revenue plan, fire them sooner than later. Did I mention that all your work should drive your core business? I hope so, that point is super important.
  

Remember, there is no magic bullet/formula/strategy. Victory comes to those who want it the most, and are willing to learn whatever they have to, the lucky, the bold, and most especially, those who are willing to stick to it through the hard slog it takes to get a company off the ground.

But don't discount the plan, because planning drives the all important "attention factor," and that's what really drives your company.

Comments? I'd like to elaborate more on this, and expand this article into some practical applications if there is interest.