thoughts from the brain of Zach Lieberman

I got word of a great story just a few days ago.

Alec Brownstein, an advertising copywriter, had used Google to land himself a job. A YouTube video on how he did it was posted May 3 (watch it here) and as of  today, May 16, it has 427,047 views – pretty sweet. I don’t know Alec, but the news was bittersweet. On the one hand I was happy for him, but on the other hand I was kicking myself. Why?

Because 48 days ago I had the same idea. Just look at this screengrab of a note on my iPhone. I wrote it March 30, 2010.

Now I’m pretty happy with myself at the moment, as the good people at Dashboard Communications approached me a little while ago and tomorrow will be my first day at the new gig. I’m thrilled to be joining a team of talented people and visionaries, and will continue to blog here and hopefully contribute to the agency blog as well.

But the whole process got me thinking. In an industry where so many companies focus on the “idea”, the execution is just as important. I mean, I had the idea to use Google to find a job, and it’s pretty damn similar to what Alec successfully did. The only difference between the two of us (in this instance, at least), is that he took action and I didn’t. And while we both landed new gigs, Alec has got a lot more fame and brand recognition than I do right now (i.e. the story on Mashable has 1,476 Re-Tweets & was picked-up by CNN).

Now it turns out that Alec started his campaign in the summer of 2009, and the whole process (as confirmed via Twitter) – from inital ad to landing the new gig took about 6 months. So he did have the idea before I did. But that’s not the point.

The lesson to be learned here is this: Ideas really are a dime a dozen (sorry for the cliché). And if you think you’ve got a great idea, chances are someone else might have it as well. But if can execute your idea first and/or better than the other person, you’ll come out on top. This is true in business and in life. So as we each push ourselves and our Clients to do better, remember to not just focus on the idea, but the execution. The little deals are as important as the big ones. So put your heart into it, and make it good.