The idea was never the hard part

A man in Manama has noticed something that works. In another Gulf city, a small business collects shoes from people's homes, cleans and repairs them, and returns them two days later. He has studied it closely. The prices are on its website. The vans are easy to spot. Its customers talk about it.

Everything he would need to copy it is in the open. That is the odd thing about good ideas, and about good execution too. Both are everywhere, and both can be learned.

Someone who wants to start something rarely lacks a model. There is a well-run version of almost every small business, and each one has its methods on display for anyone patient enough to look. The same holds for people who want to change something in their neighbourhood. Somewhere, someone has already done it properly and left the steps visible.

And still, most copied plans never begin.

What is missing is not information. It is the decision to start, said out loud, with a name attached. Then the harder decision to keep going through the weeks when nobody calls, the first van breaks down and the whole plan looks foolish to the people who said so at the start.

That part cannot be borrowed from anyone. It is the moment he becomes responsible for the outcome, with nobody else to point to.

It is less dangerous than it feels. Most of the uncertainty was settled by the people who went first.

It is still hard, and it is the only part that is in short supply.