Into the Dragon's Den.

What was obvious, over and over again, was that they hadn't done their homework.

By the time the third series had come the questions were the same as in the previous series, and yet the hapless inventors still couldn't answer them. The dragons were brutal.

In some cases perhaps overly brutal, and in some cases perhaps too dismissive of ideas that might make it. But even so, in many cases the criticism was well deserved.

A good idea is not enough. Loads and loads of hard work is not enough. Selling to your friends is not enough. To make it you have to have a strong mix of product, market, finance, planning, strategy, sales, and most of all, thick skin.

You can't learn it all from reading. Some things you have to do for yourself.

You need sound advice from someone who has been there, and you need to listen to it. Defend your corner, argue your point, but if you can't convince someone who's done it, don't think they must be wrong.

Some ideas just won't make it in the open market, and yours may be one of them. A solid business is more than just the idea, and you need to be able to see how the business will work.

But if you can do that, the potential rewards are enormous.

Quotation from Tim Berners-Lee