twitter. facebook. youtube. wikipedia.

all of those sites and organizations have something in common: they’re all in the top 10 in website traffic in terms of monthly visitors. they also have something else in common: none of them started out as an idea to make money.

there was no business plan behind twitter on how the founders were going to turn a profit through selling ads or a subscription. they were a group of college friends who just wanted a way to share what they were doing with each other. zuckerberg was drunk in his dorm room one night when he launched facebook. and jimmy wales had an idea for a better encyclopedia anyone could access for free which had more current information than the heavily curated bookshelf versions.

so why do you insist that your business only go after the ideas that have a high ROI you can measure today? instead, shape the markets of tomorrow.

if not you, someone else will.