My Graveyard of Bad Ideas
Half-finished websites.
Domain names I’ll probably never use. (Don’t ask how many. I’d lie anyway.)
Business ideas that sounded brilliant for about 48 hours.
Marketing experiments that made me sweaty for no reason.
For a long time, I was embarrassed by that.
(Okay… I still am a little.)
But I’ve learned a lot by digging those graves.
Here are a few.
1. Calling my blog Thinky Thoughts
I still love this name.
It makes me smile.
It also tells a first-time visitor absolutely nothing about what they’ll find there. Worse, it quietly undermines the credibility of the ideas I wanted to share.
2. Putting “I find systems sexy” on my homepage
I do.
But I would never actually say that.
It wasn’t inaccurate. It was inauthentic.
My best friend summed it up perfectly:
“Absolutely not.”
Fair.
3. Settling for a website that was “fine”
The first version of my website wasn’t terrible.
It was just… generic.
The turning point wasn’t redesigning it.
It was sending it to people I trusted and asking them to be brutally honest.
Some confirmed what I already suspected.
A few pointed out things I never would’ve seen on my own.
So I went back to the drawing board.
I’m really proud of where it landed.
4. Making funny Instagram videos
I tried.
I felt sweaty and cringe the entire time.
I kept waiting for the confidence to kick in because everyone says it eventually does.
It never did.
Nobody hired me.
The videos didn’t demonstrate how I think or how I work.
So I just got sweaty for no reason.
5. Building software for Graduate Medical Education
This one hurts.
I believed in it. I invested years into it. And honestly, I still think it’s a good idea.
My audience absolutely had the problem I was trying to solve.
They even liked the solution.
The problem was that it probably ranked somewhere in the mid-fifties on their list of top 100 problems.
That’s not going to cut it.
A real problem and a viable business opportunity aren’t always the same thing. Le sigh.
6. Listening to the LinkedIn Guru Bros
You know the ones.
I bought the courses.
Downloaded the guides.
Studied the frameworks.
Some of it was genuinely helpful.
But eventually I realized:
I don’t want to build the kind of business they’re building.
I don’t want to sound the way they sound.
So why was I trying so hard to follow their blueprint?
7. Spending five hours making an animation nobody needed
I have a tendency to fall down rabbit holes.
This time it was custom website animations.
I researched GSAP. I played with Rive. I tinkered with SVGator.
Five hours later, I’d learned a lot…
…and made almost no meaningful progress.
The funny part is that I actually consider this a success.
A year ago, I probably would’ve spent 50 hours chasing the perfect animation before admitting it wasn’t the highest-leverage thing I could be doing.
Progress isn’t just learning new things.
Sometimes it’s getting better at knowing when to stop.
8. The “this is definitely the one” cycle
You may recognize this one.
- Come up with an exciting new idea.
- Spend three hours naming it.
- Buy the domain.
- Design the logo.
- Build half the website.
- Realize it wasn’t actually that great.
- Come up with a truly amazing idea.
- Spend three hours naming it…
Repeat.
I’ve done this more times than I’m going to admit in a public post.
If this sounds familiar, know you’re not alone.
9. “MedEd Brands”
Oof.
This one completely missed the mark.
I was talking about brands.
My audience was thinking about patients, learners, communities, and impact.
They weren’t trying to become “a brand.”
They wanted to share their expertise in a way that helped more people, felt authentic, and didn’t burn themselves out.
It took me longer than I’d like to admit to find the right words for what I actually do.
Looking back, I don’t regret any of these.
Well…
Maybe the Instagram videos.
Mostly, I’m grateful I was willing to try things, realize they weren’t working, and move on.
I’ve gotten much better at catching myself before I spend months chasing the wrong thing.
Not perfect.
Better.
If you’re standing over an exciting new idea with a shovel in one hand and a credit card in the other, let’s talk first.
I’d love to help you kick the tires before you buy the domain.
At the very least, I might be able to save you from making sweaty Instagram videos.
