I spent a couple of hours today at a focus group discussion. I went because it paid $50 and they provided food and drinks. 

It was pizza, so that was pretty awesome although the vegetarian pie was the nearest one to me. I had to reach over for the meat and shit.

Anyway, to give only a small idea about what it was about since I signed an NDA for it, it was about ideas for a video game.

The details of the game weren't particularly intriguing to me.

What I observed mostly was how people of the group contributed to the discussion.

And it kind of brought up the grumpy, ol' cynical dude in me.

There was a dude who contributed heavily about how gaming affected and complemented his lifestyle, his past and his job today.

There was a really young girl who seemed wide-eyed and idealistic, happy with her contribution.

There were two dudes who were obviously friends and they openly shared what degree they were studying in university.

There was a hardcore gamer geek guy who loved gaming.

And so on.

I was mostly quiet, and to be honest and I kept thinking to myself, "All of this do no matter until a working product arrives.

All of this are not elements of success until the product catches on with many customers."

Or to be bluntly, I was thinking, "This shit does not matter at all."

Why?

Because in business, you can plan all you like, but something is bound to not go according to plan anyway.

Ideas are just ideas. Everyone has ideas. They're essentially useless until someone takes action on it and ironically today, more people talk about taking action than taking action itself.

I like to think I've been through all the crashes and burns to make me prepared for business.

I am skeptical about a lot of things, but at least I know for certain what it truly takes to make something succeed.

The only thing real today were the pizza, drinks and $50.