Good Ideas vs In-Demand Technology

So I attended a Hackupstate Hackathon this weekend. Amazing amount of fun with a lot of junk food. I was hoping to walk away with some new technology that could make me some money. So I took it upon myself to spear head an idea I had:


Live It Up! : A self improvement app that gives you micro challenges everyday to improve your happiness and success.

No Traction
I finished the App okay and delivered it to the App store. As I was developing the app, I found no one was really interested in the idea. Although I thought for sure "Man, this is an amazing idea and everyone is going to love it." This was not the case. Most people kinda just shrugged it off. It didn't really deliver a spark of excitement or enthusiasm to anyone.

Individualism
I finally had an epiphany. My wants and needs for this idea didn't align with the markets wants and needs. Sure, I loved the idea of an app that would make me more happy and successful. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to be the case for everyone else in the world. This may also be the reason there aren't any apps out there like this already.

No More Great Ideas
I have a laundry list of "Great Ideas." One of which is an electric skateboard that can take you 60 MPH. PROBLEM: Although I would love to ride down a free way on a skateboard while jamming out to Rock and Roll while double fisting two beers in the nude, no one else wants that idea. So as appealing as it is to me, I'm no longer going to pursue that train of thought.

Shut Up and Take My Money
I keep lots of ideas on paper. They are usually labeled Crazy Ideas, Great Ideas, Strange ideas, etc. I now have a new list of ideas labeled "Shut up and take my money ideas." This list will only be comprised of in demand technologies that can fill market gaps and force people to say "Hey, I must have this product or service, shut-up and take the money out of my wallet." I've read about this approach before but never really connected the dots between brilliance and real world demands.