You’ve had that moment.
3am. Can’t sleep. Suddenly, a thought hits you, a business idea so brilliant, so groundbreaking, you’re convinced you’ve stumbled onto something that could change everything.
You feel like a genius. You start mentally spending the millions. You picture the interviews, the Forbes features, the “how did you come up with this?” questions.
Then you make a mistake.
You search it on Reddit.
And there it is. A thread from 2017. Someone already thought of it. Discussed it. Got feedback. Some tried it. Most abandoned it.
Your “original” idea? It’s been sitting in a subreddit for seven years gathering dust.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth nobody wants to accept:
There are 8 billion people on this planet. The internet has connected the smartest minds across every continent. Reddit alone has over 50 million daily users discussing everything from quantum physics to sandwich recipes.
The odds of you thinking something truly original, something no human has ever conceived are almost zero.
Newton and Leibniz invented calculus at the same time without knowing each other. Darwin and Wallace both discovered evolution independently. Bell and Gray filed telephone patents on the same damn day.
If the greatest minds in history couldn’t avoid thinking the same thoughts, what makes you think your shower thought is unique?
But here’s where most people get it wrong.
They let this realisation discourage them. They think, “What’s the point if someone’s already thought of it?”
That’s loser mentality.
Because ideas have never been the differentiator. Ever.
Facebook wasn’t the first social network. Google wasn’t the first search engine. Apple didn’t invent the smartphone. Netflix didn’t invent streaming.
They just executed better. Timed it better. Committed harder. Stayed longer.
The guy who posted your “original” idea on Reddit in 2017? He’s probably still working a 9-5, telling people at parties about the idea he “had first.”
Meanwhile, someone else saw that same idea, ignored the noise, and built a company around it.
The real question isn’t “Is my idea original?”
The real questions are:
∙ Can you execute it better than anyone else?
∙ Are you willing to stay in the game longer than everyone else?
∙ Do you have the stomach to keep going when it gets hard?
Ideas are free. They’re floating everywhere, in Reddit threads, in podcast conversations, in random tweets. Millions of them. All waiting.
Execution costs everything. Your time. Your money. Your comfort. Your relationships. Your sleep. Your sanity.
That’s the filter. That’s what separates the dreamers from the doers.
So next time you have a “groundbreaking” idea, don’t be discouraged when you find it on Reddit. Be encouraged.
It means there’s demand. It means others have thought about it. It means the market might be ready.
Now the only question is, are you going to be another thread?
Or are you going to be the one who actually builds it?
