I don't have a problem hearing from people with ideas, what I have a problem with is 9 out of 10 people fail to execute and as a result, waste my time. It seems that to many, having a business, or an app idea, is as far as it gets. As an entrepreneur, that bugs the hell out of me.
He's not referring to the fact that they try and fail, it's that they fail to TRY. I have the same problem as well. People are always excited and impatient to set up a meeting to talk about an "app/website idea" they're really serious about. I'll take the time to put them in my schedule, go meet them somewhere and listen to them talk for an hour or two, and thats as far as it ever gets. Everybody wants to talk about their idea, and most seem to think I should be willing to work for some equity.
My last experience with this is fairly typical. A restaurant manager I worked with a couple years ago had "a brilliant idea". He was emailing and calling me constantly, refused to talk over the phone and was doing anything he could to get me into a meeting A.S.A.P. since he 'really wanted to get rolling on this'. I heard him out and quoted him $4,000. Never heard from him again. I tried calling once, left a voice mail, and attempted to follow up on two occasions via e-mail and nothing.
And _that's_ what he's talking about. People that waste our time in meetings and don't ever follow through.
This is exactly it. In fact, I was just talking with my partner last week about the fact that almost every time we get a potential client or lead that wants to meet or talk on the phone first, it almost always never turns into real work. On the contrary, our best clients rarely, if ever, request meetings or phone/face time.
His idea was that to these "idea people," the meeting is a replacement for work. I'm not sure what I think, aside from the fact that I'm tired of wasting my time.
