Ideas From Start to Finish: It’s OK If People Don’t Understand Your Ideas
- Posted by glen on September 10th, 2007
This is the second post in the series Ideas From Start to Finish.
When a new idea strikes me for a website, I typically try to run it by a close friend. And usually, I get a really blank look.
It’s not that the ideas are bad, it’s that the person I’m explaining it to doesn’t really understand my idea. Unless he/she sees a prototype, it’s incredibly difficult to follow what’s inside my head. Why? Because it’s inside my head. I’m the only one who can fully grasp the concept.
Truly innovative ideas take a while to get used to, or even understand. History is riddled with inventors who were mistaken for crazy, only later to have made some of the most groundbreaking discoveries. Yet had they listened to their friends, we probably wouldn’t have many of the cool technologies that exist today.
Alexander Graham Bell: “I’m going to try and make a machine that allows two people to hear each other’s voices with a wire.”
Friend: “Riiiiiiggghhhht.”
Fortunately, people like Edison, Bell and a slew of others didn’t listen to their friends or critics. They forged ahead because they believed in their ideas. And they weren’t afraid of failure.
It’s your idea. Nobody understands it as well as you. You are officially the authoritative expert on your idea. I eventually stopped telling people my ideas until I could show them a prototype, but even then I take their opinions with a grain of salt.
A major obstacle in completing ideas is getting over the “is it good enough?” stage. Honestly, you won’t truly know how innovative your idea is until you actually create it.
Instead of spending your time asking everyone around if they think your concept will work, spend that time developing the idea. Let it marinate and take shape. And develop the snot out of it. Once you’ve got a bangin’ prototype, then see what people think.
An article was published recently chronicling Zappos and their successess in internet marketing. One of the main reasons for their success is that they stopped listening to consultants to tell them how to run their business.
“You have to avoid falling into the trap of a consultant telling you that, ‘If you spend a large amount of money with us, all of your problems will be solved, and you’ll never have to worry about this again.’ In the end, they are outsiders and do not understand your business as well as you do.â€Â
As originators of the idea, it’s your responsibility to see that the integrity of your idea is kept. Don’t try and let outsiders tell you what they think of your idea, or how to implement it. Think of the idea as your baby. You wouldn’t let somebody else raise your child, would you?
September 11th, 2007 at 10:06 am
Entrepreneurial mindset! Woot :-)
September 11th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Seriously doing this at the moment in the development of ghq.com. Amazing the number of people who say it will no work because they have not seen it before in that format.
September 12th, 2007 at 4:45 am
There is value in getting feedback from people, even negative feedback. A good idea is only a good idea if it can be used. This means the idea has to be a) sound, b) able to be communicated to others for their use. If the criticism was justified, negative feedback about the soundness of an idea may help to iron out glitches. But maybe the criticism was not justified because the idea really is sound, but the idea was not communicated well enough. This is then an opportunity to work on your presentation, by trial and error, to make it easily understood (something I grapple with a lot).
September 12th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Good points Judy. However, I think that sometimes people worry a lot about how to communicate the idea, instead of actually developing a prototype that does all the talking.
Seeing is believing. They can’t really understand the idea until they can physically use it.
September 14th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Great point. A lot of times we want to get widespread acceptance and kudos for our freshly-conceived ideas.
What I’ve found most exciting and most effective is to work through the idea by finding an exciting and titallating way to describe what I am trying to do in such a way that I get my listeners just as excited.
That way I can share what I am doing and get a little constructive feedback every now and then.
September 23rd, 2007 at 9:24 pm
I was searching “if no one understands my idea”. Well, there might be someone do.
Where would you go, if you need a supporter (i.e. money) to realize your idea?
October 8th, 2007 at 2:41 am
I definately have this problem because currently I am trying to think of an idea for a business, and for some reason I can invision the idea but I need someone to see my vision as well. Then I talk myself out of it by asking myself do you really want to be working with a “— website for the next 5 years” I just need to know when I hit that jackpot idea and I don’t want to be once I have invested 20,000 in an idea I thought was just good. Yes I am confused as well
October 11th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Think Out the Box! will give you great ideas. You will give creativity beyond your physical knowing as it comes from your inner self
K Amber
Baby Steps To Extreme Mind Power
http://www.simplemindpower.com/blog/
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