Entrepreneur: When the World Tells You “No”
by Miki Saxon
No, it can’t be done.
No, nobody will buy it.
No, [insert your own].
Whether you have an idea that will change the world or a way to do what is already being done better, faster, cheaper or a combination of them, you are going to hear no.
Not once or twice, but many times a day.
You may hear it from family, friends, colleagues, investors and startup specialists.
A critical factor in innovation, whether for an entrepreneur or in small group in a large company, is the ability to unemotionally evaluate the quality and value of each ‘no.’
Some will be valuable in helping to tweak your idea to make a better product, while others only foster negativism.
You need to sort them out, use the good stuff and delete the rest—especially from sources who really care about you—no matter how often you hear them. (This applies to most advice.)
If you do get a bit discouraged when people keep raining on your parade just remember these others who heard the same thing.
- In 1936 the editor of the Pictorial Review refused the opportunity to serialize Gone with the Wind before its actual publication.
- In 1937 Roy Disney (Walt’s brother) said that Mickey Mouse was passé and should be phased out.
- In 1962 Decca Records rejected a recording contract with the Beatles because they didn’t like their sound and believed that guitar music was on the way out.
- In the late 1980s Ken Olsen said that business would never gravitate to personal computers.
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottrettberg/3207635/
