History teems with stories of ideas dismissed by so-called experts. As American philosopher Nicholas Butler once noted: “An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.”
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.” - Shunryu Suzuki
On your path to executing your ideas, you would have to deal with naysayers, doubters, critics, frenemies, fear-inducing statements from family, friends and so-called experts. Following through on your dreams is a roller coaster of ups and downs, trials and tribulations, false starts, mistakes, pivoting, lessons learned but regardless of the challenges; you have to keep pushing.
In his 1992 book, author of Future Edge: Discovering the new paradigm of success Joel A. Barker highlight some statements made by so-called experts about some great ideas:
- The phonograph is of no commercial value. —Thomas Edison, remarking on his own invention in 1880.
- There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom. —Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize winner in physics, 1920.
- There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom. The glib supposition of utilizing atomic energy when our coal has run out is a completely unscientific Utopian dream, a childish bug-a-boo. - Robert Millikan
- It is an idle dream to imagine that automobiles will take the place of railways in the long-distance movement of passengers. — American Road Congress, 1913.
- I think there is a world market for about five computers. —Thomas Watson, chairman IBM, 1943.
- There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.” —Ken Olsen, president of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977.
MIT engineer and Digital Equipment Corporation co-founder Ken Olsen famously said “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home. In his autobiography The Idea Man, Co-founder of Microsoft Paul Allen writes about DEC and Olson’s statement:
As late as 1977, its president told the World Future Association, “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.
Five years later, DEC swallowed its pride and released a well-designed microcomputer called the Rainbow 100, but shot itself in the foot by using the old 8-bit CP/M system. When DEC finally got around to implementing MS-DOS, the company required a customized version that was incompatible with thousands of PC applications, and it flopped.
Former California Governor and actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his 2010 Emory University’s 165th commencement speech made the following poignant points about ignoring naysayers:
You’re going to find the nay-sayers in every turn that you make; don’t listen. Just visualize your goal; know exactly where you want to go, trust yourself, get out there and work like hell, and break some of the rules, and never ever be afraid of failure.
If someone told me that something is impossible, I would go out and do it. That’s just the way I always was. I was told to my face ‘you’re nothing but a giant muscle.’ You can’t act, you have no future and you have an accent that is laughable.
Executing an idea is not an easy task as it involves coming up with a vision, building a team, showing up day in day out, and adding value in the process. In their Think Different advertising campaign, Apple paid homage to some of the greatest iconic historical figures of our time such as Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Thomas Edison, Pablo Picasso, Martin Luther King Jr., Charlie Chaplin among others. Apple highlighted what it means to follow your dreams in the face of opposition and statements by so-called experts.
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes … the ones who see things differently – they’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. … You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things. … They push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
The people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.
The moment that you start executing an idea, you are going to be criticized. It is the price of greatness, people would come for you. As 26th president of the United States of America Theodore Roosevelt Jr. famously noted:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” - Winston Churchill
As Greek-American Entrepreneur and author Peter Diamandis noted in his book, Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World
Trying out crazy ideas means bucking expert opinion and taking big risks. It means not being afraid to fail. Because you will fail. The road to bold is paved with failure, and this means having a strategy in place to handle risk and learn from mistakes is critical.”
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. - Mahatma Gandhi
In the movie,The Pursuit of Happyness featuring Will Smith as homeless salesman Chris Gardner and his real life son Jadon Smith as Christopher Jr..A scene in the movie where they are both playing basketball captures how protecting your dreams from naysayers, critics and doubters is very important.
Will: Hey dad, I am going pro! … I am going pro!
Jadon: Okay yeah. I don’t know you know I… You’ll probably be about as good as I was. That’s kind of the way it works you know. I was below average. You know, so you’ll probably ultimately rank…somewhere around there you know so…I really - You’ll excel at a lot of things just not this. I don’t want you shooting this ball around all day and night. All right?
Jadon: All right - Okay (stops playing the ball and puts the ball in his bag)
Will: Hey! Don’t ever let somebody tell you … you can’t do something. Not even me. All right?
Jadon: All right
Will: You got a dream. You got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves… they want to tell you, you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period. Let’s go
“Don’t ever let someone tell you that you can’t do something. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. When people can’t do something themselves, they are going to tell you that you can’t do it. You want something, go get it. Period.”
Dealing with the fear-inducing statements and criticism of those closest to us is a tough pill to swallow. It is the killer of great dreams and ideas, statements such as “You can not do that”, “It is impossible”, “You are too young or too old to do that” etc. If you got a dream, a strong belief in yourself, build a great team around you and execute relentlessly. Your dreams are valid.
