What do you do when you have a great idea? Do you run full speed ahead not listening to dissenting opinions? Do you ask your closest friends and confidants and hope they think it’s a good idea? What do you do when you encounter opposition?
I used to have great ideas and run them by other people, only to have them say things like ‘Google already did it’ or ‘How will you compete with [insert huge corporation or busines here]?’ Not anymore.
I had a great idea, a phenomenal one. I had an idea that would catapult my skills into the mainstream and make reading RSS feeds a much less painful and a much more enjoyable experience. But when I ran it by two people who’s opinions I trusted in the hopes they would shower me with encouragement, I got comments like ‘iGoogle does it already’ (which led to a nickname of Mr. iGoogle) and ‘there are already too many rss readers out there.’ I should have just gone forward with my concept in the face of such discouragement, but I didn’t and the other day I saw MY idea done by someone else: introducing Times.
As annoying, anger inducing, and demoralizing as this experience has been, it’s also taught me an important lesson: Follow your heart and instincts. (similar, but not exactly like one of my favorite lyrics of all time sung by Hot Water Music: “Live your heart and Never Follow”)If you have an idea or concept that you think is great and you really want to create it, by all means ask for advice and bounce ideas off your friends and collegues, but don’t get discouraged and stop when they say negative things about it. Find someone who likes the idea and encourages you or go at it alone and say screw convention and negative people who said you would fail. Google and Apple are great examples of success in the face of screaming opposition.
