Summer is often a time when I see people from all walks of life exploring new business ideas.

Instead of pursuing traditional internships, focusing on academic research, or traveling, many college students around the world spend their summers working on startups. When corporate life slows down during July and August, I hear of employees using their free time to explore a side project or lay plans to strike out on their own in the fall. Even founders of startups that are up and running use the summer slowdown as an opportunity to think of new products or services they could introduce into their existing ventures.

All three of these groups begin the process of exploring new business ideas by grappling with one fundamental question: Is my idea worth pursuing?

Whether you’re a college student, first-time founder, or seasoned entrepreneur, your decision to pursue an idea shouldn’t be based on whether you think you can quickly turn the idea into a viable business. Having led more than half a dozen startups myself, and advised hundreds of others, I can safely say that there is no way of knowing with any degree of certainty whether your business idea will lead to financial success.

Instead, your decision on whether to pursue the idea should be based on a careful consideration of the following questions: 

How unique is your idea?  

When considering the uniqueness of your idea, there are two cases in particular that you should pay close attention to:

The first is one that entrepreneurs commonly consider. After doing some initial market research, you find that many businesses are working on similar ideas. If this is the case, you need to think about whether your idea will truly add value to the industry. For instance, one Boston-based venture, ClimaCell, is working in a space that many could perceive as crowded — weather forecasting. But the founders have developed a solution to gather more accurate weather data, which has significant implications for industries such as transportation and logistics.

The second situation is when initial market research shows that no one else is working on a similar idea. While the prospect of being first-to-market with a particular product or service can be exciting, having no competition should give you pause.

In these cases, you can look at whether anyone else has ever had a similar idea, but failed to turn it into a viable business. If possible, reach out to these people to see if they’d be willing to have a conversation with you about the factors that led to their failure.

What is the potential for impact?

Before moving forward with your idea, consider how many people your idea has the potential to impact, and the degree to which your idea will impact these people.

For the former, existing research can often give you a sense of how many people would benefit from your idea becoming a reality. For instance, one startup I’ve gotten to know well in recent years whose founder was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Healthcare, UrSure, is working on a solution to drive adherence to a drug that prevents HIV infections. Considering that 40,000 people in the U.S. alone are diagnosed with HIV annually, this solution has the potential to help tens of thousands of people in the U.S. each year.

How much your idea will impact people is much harder to quantify. While you can hypothesize the value that people would get from your product or service, it’s preferable to find ways of testing your idea in the market. If you want to make a product, build a minimum viable product and find test users. If you have an idea for a service, take the time to recruit a few pro bono clients in exchange for their feedback.

Why are you uniquely qualified to turn your idea into a reality?

Even if you have an idea that’s worth pursuing, you must also ask yourself whether you’re the right person to pursue it. Specifically, what about your background makes you uniquely qualified to build a company based on your idea?

For many of the most successful founders I’ve met, their unique qualifications have come from the idea being based on a pain point that they’ve identified through unique life experiences. For instance, Rumi Spice, a company that helps Afghan farmers sell saffron in the U.S., was founded by a team of U.S. military veterans. Their deployments to Afghanistan not only gave them insight into their idea, but also the experience necessary to effectively work with local farmers.

If you have a unique idea that has the potential for significant impact, and you’re well-qualified to bring the idea to life, I would strongly encourage you to pursue it.