> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://kelfordinc.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Kelford Labs Daily: Good idea or good business?
- URL: https://kelfordinc.com/kelford-labs-daily-good-idea-or-good-business/
- Published: 2023-12-11T11:24:06.000Z
- Updated: 2026-01-18T15:16:36.000Z
- Description: And how to know the difference.
- Author: Joel Kelly
- Tags: Daily Labs, questions, value, demand, validate, first principles, customers, tradeoff, overdeliver

*“Let me give three simple questions to help you challenge everything you do:*

*1\. Is what you offer valuable (not just interesting)?*

*2\. Is it urgent (i.e. high on the priority list for your ideal customer)?*

*3\. Are you exceeding expectations in delivering it?”*

*—* Ton Dobbe, *The Remarkable Effect*

---

**There is a vast and dangerous chasm between something being a good *idea* and something being a good *business*.**

All things are interesting, but not all things are *valuable*.

All things are important, but not all things are *urgent*.

All things are delivered, but not all things are *overdelivered*.

**Lots of things *sound* like great businesses, but we’ve got to challenge our assumptions and make sure there’s a business actually there, not just a fantasy.**

“The most common, and costly business development mistake,” Blair Enns once wrote, “is that of mistaking interest for intent.”

No matter how many people tell us our idea is great, interesting, or amazing, we won’t know if it’s a good *business* until someone hands us money in exchange for the value we provide.

**So before you invest in an idea (yours or someone else’s), ask yourself:**

“Do I know that this is truly *valuable?*”

“Is it truly *urgent* for its ideal customers?”

“Does it make tradeoffs that allow it to *overdeliver* for its best customers?”

And, “Do I have *evidence* people will pay for this, or just promises that they might?”

Sometimes good ideas are just good ideas, and only that.

**But good businesses are something else.**

🧠

This post contains 100% organic content, no generative AI was used in its creation.