Bay of Ideas' recent survey in Sweden shows that more than 95% of respondents have had ideas that never became anything more than thoughts and visions. The main reasons are due to a lack of time, the wrong skills or an insufficient network.
The social network Bay of Ideas has determined in its survey 1) that the majority of respondents have more than 6 ideas they have never done anything about. This means that Sweden's adult population 2) has over 40 million ideas that never became reality.
Of those participating in the survey, 72.2% had had individual business ideas that they did nothing about and 51.9% had had ideas at the workplace that never materialized. 62% had had a general idea to improve something non-business related.
The survey also asked the participants to explain with several answer options why they did not do anything with their ideas.
The absolute number one reason is a lack of time, with a whopping 59.7% saying they didn't have time to develop their idea. 50.6% said they lacked the skills required to take their idea further and 42.9% said they lacked the right network to take the idea further. While 15.6% said they didn't think anyone would care about their idea, only 9.1% said they're afraid that someone would steal their idea if they started talking about it. A smaller part, 6.5%, were a little bit ashamed of their idea.
- The analysis of the survey shows that the most common problem is that you are often insufficient as a single individual to push your idea forward. This does not mean that the idea is bad, that you lack drive or commitment. You simply just need to have more people who can contribute with their unique knowledge, network and commitment to provide the right conditions to push an early idea forward, otherwise it rarely comes off, says Andy Rietschel, one of the founders of Bay of Ideas.
Jonas Viklund, who is responsible for platform development, highlights that the survey supports the social network Bay of Ideas' mission in attracting and engaging more people around each idea, and the insights are the basis for continued development of the platform in several areas.
- We have listened to what people need and how to solve this problem that the survey highlights, it is important for more ideas to become reality, continues Robert Svebeck who is responsible for innovation and AI. Bay of Ideas has been built with the idea in focus to become the safe, simple and innovative platform to share and engage all people's early ideas. Regardless of whether they are small, well-developed or outright visions of the future without ready-made solutions.
The survey is part of the Bay of Ideas social network where you can collaborate on people's ideas in the simplest possible way.
1) Survey conducted by Bay of Ideas on people aged 18-79 years of which 49.4% women and 50.6% men.
2) https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/sverige-i-siffror/manniskorna-i-sverige/sveriges-befolkningspyramid/