Being Brave is Tricky

We've talked a lot about being brave, and the idea that if nobody hates your product, it's probably mediocre:

And we've talked about the difference between incremental improvements and revolutionary leaps:

But being brave is tricky.

If your new Big Idea doesn't scare the hell out of you, it's probably not a new Big Idea. If it doesn't scare other people, it might be because you allowed the consensus (or what you imagined as the consensus) to smooth the pointy bits, buffing and polishing the idea into a nice safe state that displeases nobody and delights nobody.

But what if your idea really does suck? We can never know for certain--some of the most important ideas have always defied logic, evidence, testing, focus groups, conventional wisdom, etc. But if you don't try, then where are we? Even if a Big Idea fails, that puts us one attempt closer to something that will work. The Big Ideas that succeed are often the ones that would never have happened if something else hadn't been tried and failed.

I don't have a good answer for this other than one tiny piece of advice--try to determine the source of your fear. If it's over what other people will say--or are saying--then you might want to acknowledge and ultimately ignore it. Any good new idea has critics. Many of those critics are smart, reasonable, sincere, not-afraid-of-change people who simply do not see and feel what you see and feel. Should you listen to them? Of course... with one ear, anyway. They might have truly useful info you didn't have--info that can help alter your course, change your decision, or at the least--prepare you for more criticism to come.

But--if we let the critics (or fear of criticism) talk us out of an idea we still believe in, the world will be more homogeneous. Smoother. Less interesting. Imagine where we'd be if people throughout history had always given in to the critics (or fear of critics). Imagine the ideas that would have been lost if others hadn't been brave enough to stand up against smart people who disagreed. Nature needs change and diversity, but humans tend to favor the status quo.

Think about the times you've said, "What a terrible idea -- that will NEVER work!" about something that later succeeded and proved your perception wrong. If you can view your critics (I'm not talking about the "who moved my cheese" nay sayers who fear anything new) as people who are just as sincere as you are when you are wrong about someone's idea, it might help. They aren't trying to trash your idea -- they're trying to help. They might be saving your butt. But they might be dead wrong.

If your fears are coming from that nagging feeling within--your OWN little voice-in-the-head-or-gut that says, "something's not right here...", pay attention! But if your fear is over what others will say (or are saying), sometimes you just have to say, "screw 'em." ; )

Or as Apple says,
Here's to the crazy ones

"...you can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things..."

Every time I make a post like this, I'm slammed somewhere for "glorifying the troublemakers and encouraging people to push their crazy, bad, stupid, dangerous ideas."

I don't glorify the "crazy ones". I thank God for them.

Yes, they might make mistakes. But is that better than the alternative?

[Disclaimer: I'm obviously not talking about the kinds of ideas where lives are at stake. Different set of rules there...]

Think of new ideas and progress like photography -- you have to take a bunch of photos to get one good one. The more we have a culture that discourages and punishes all failures, the more we're just shooting our future in the foot.