I’ve heard on more than one occasion ideas are easy, execution is hard.
Let me rephrase that and say execution isn’t always hard – but it is always very, very scary.
The fun part about ideas is as long as they exist in the theoretical they really can’t be wrong. Ideas are simply points of view, opinions. But not being wrong also means it they necessarily right either. I think we forget that. It seems we want to put emphasis on “ideas” some guru writes about and forget those ideas are simply op-ed posts. That “gurus” super interesting post is nothing more than a halfway decent thought starter – not a proven approach with data points and successful case studies.
Don’t get me wrong we need ideas. But we need results too.
Moving an idea from the theoretical to the real hard. It’s a scary jump and one few people can do successfully. Just look at the blogs (this one included) – a plethora of ideas – a dearth of real outcomes.
Read the whole post over at What Is Paul Thinking? (an FOT contributor blog).

Paul Hebert is Senior Account Executive at WorkStride, Inc, and a writer, speaker and consultant. Paul focuses on helping connect best-in-class incentive technology platform to behaviors you need drive business results through employees, channel partners and consumers.
Using proven motivational theory, behavioral economics and social psychology he has driven extraordinary company performance for his clients. Paul is widely considered an expert on motivation, incentives, and engagement.
Other notable activities:
- Interviewed by the BBC on executive motivation and pay
- Quoted three times in USATODAY as an expert in incentives and channel travel programs
- Published in Loyalty360 magazine
- Writer and founding member of the editorial advisory board at the HRExaminer website
- Contributing author of “Enterprise Engagement: The Textbook: A Roadmap to Achieving Organizational Results Through People”
- Contributing author of 3 books on social media “The Age of Conversation #1, #2, and #3”