Believing in Something... Even When Everybody Seems to be Set Against it

There's often a remarkably thin line between failure and success.

My experience tells me that lots of people have really excellent ideas with the potential to become successful, if not actually change the world.

And yet? They end up failing... and it leaves you wondering why. We hear about that and think to ourselves "Why did THAT not work? It was SUCH a great idea!"

Close-up of a daffodil...

Pioneering is Extremely Difficult!

The thing about radically new ideas is that you often have to keep pushing against the tide for an extraordinarily long time. Skeptics are a dime a dozen, and if you have some revolutionary idea... you can be quite sure that they will be lining up at your doorstep for a change to tell you how your idea "will never work!"

The "horseless carriage;" the telephone, Television, the Internet, Cell phones, Blockchain...

Pioneering is so difficult because a lot of people are deeply invested in keeping things the way they are.

It's not that those people don't like new things, OR that those people don't recognize your idea as potentially revolutionary, but if they've sunk their life's work into something different — that might be made irrelevant by your idea — they are really not likely to receive you with open arms and support.

Let's face it, it's not easy to put the greater good ahead of your own personal good.

So when we look at why many new ideas end up failing, as often as not it's NOT because an inventor had a bad idea, but because he/she was talked out of their idea by people with louder and more forceful voices.

"Skipper" butterfly, resting in the sun...

Persevering in the Face of Opposition

It does take a certain type of personality to persevere in the face of constant opposition. When I think about that, it does make me wonder whether success often hinges on both having a brilliant idea and having a very persuasive and somewhat pushy personality. Or, at least, a great deal of stubbornness.

I know about this from personal experience... having been at the center of projects I was "talked out of" by people who persuaded me that their superior experience and knowledge outweighed my ideas.

Years later, I would then come across that exact same idea... executed by someone else with more forcefulness and — usually — funding.

For example, I actually invented a "version" of eBay in 1993 — based on an auction system I ran across in physical space, in a major international city — but let myself be persuaded that "the Internet will not be used for commerce, so that's never going to work."

The lesson there — because hindsight is always 20/20 — is that if you're soft-spoken and not forcefully persuasive or a good debater, you'd do well to find yourself an influential "advocate" to serve as your voice; your "mouthpiece."

Plants on the railing...

Learning... Only, too Late...

Often we don't learn these lessons till it has become too late, and all we can do is look back and try to bring the wisdom gained forward and share with those now in the shoes we once stood in.

Or, when we see someone who is trying to flesh out and develop a brilliant new idea... stand by them and support them, if you truly believe in what they are doing... in spite of the fact that half the world might be busy pointing our all the flaws and downfalls in the plan.

Maybe we even see it here, in Steemlandia... there seem to be hundreds — if not thousands — of skeptics who are always criticizing and quitting in a huff, because things aren't turning out the way that serves their viewpoints. Thankfully... the overall community perseveres.

Thanks for reading!

Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As always, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190517 13:44 PST
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