Why don't your dreams become reality?

I'm an idea person.  Some would say I'm a creative visionary, others might say a foolish dreamer.  Maybe you are like me with visions and ideas floating around in your head just waiting to implement.  Maybe you're also like me in that you've never had a "bad idea" in your life.  In other words, idea people thrive on new ideas and, almost always, believe that each idea is the best thing since slice bread. Why, then, do most of your ideas never come to fruition? Maybe the two best answers to that question are a) They weren't supposed to or b) they weren't given enough attention.

Have you ever been in a brainstorming session run amuck?  Idea after idea gets thrown out and the process keeps going and going.  Everything from the impractical, the irrelevant to the absurd is posted on the board.  Everyone's ideas are valued as equal.  The whole goal of this exercise is to help the team break free from conventional thinking to possibly stumble upon one great idea, or at least a general solution to the problem.  Free-thinking is a great place to be for awhile, but stay there too long and everyone's brain will be mush.  Why?  Because ideas are ultimately only useful if they have an application.  The group may come up with tons of great ideas that just don't seem to address the problem at hand.

Questions to ask for your idea.

1. Has this already been tried before? How? Was it successful and why?  Do some research to find out if anyone else has already done this.  That will save you time and frustration on the implementation.  Idea people always think that they are the first to think of something, when in reality, a hundred people have probably already "run it up the flagpole."  Find those people and learn from them.  Chances are they are just as excited about the idea.
2. Does this idea have application now? The important thing here is to write down your idea and try to find an immediate need for it.  There may be a market for your idea, but it may not be apparent at the moment.  If there appears to be a need, then do your research to confirm it.  If not, file it for later.
3. Why doesn't anyone else believe in my idea? This is a hard question to answer. People are probably used to hearing about your latest and greatest idea, only to never see it become a reality.  They get excited at first, but soon learn that you also have a hundred other ideas.  Maybe your idea is too big for them to grasp, or maybe they've just learned to tune you out because they're tired of your idea ADHD.  You may be able to spawn ideas faster than salmon eggs, but you need to learn where to spend your "selling" energy.  Not every idea is worth putting in more than a minute of thought.  Every once in awhile, however, an idea is.  It's there that you spend your social capital and rally others to your cause.
4. Did I invest enough time in my last great idea? Don't make the mistake of going from idea to idea, only to see them all fail.  Current and effective programs or products shouldn't always have to compete with the new ones for oxygen within the organization.  Some "failed" ideas were great, except that they weren't given enough attention or resources for a long enough time.  Ideas in an organization are like bricks that are built one upon another to make a stronger and stronger overall structure.  New ideas are not always better, they're just more exciting - for awhile.

Keep dreaming.  Keep brainstorming.  Keep visioning.  Just try not to drown in a pool of your unrealized dreams.  A good idea is worth putting energy into.  Very few ideas are worth pouring a lifetime into. But when they come along, they can change the world.

I would love to hear your thoughts or personal experience why ideas aren't realized?

When to Throw In The Towel On An Idea

John had a great idea for a new church program that would reach new people and impact their lives.  He was going to do something new in a church that hadn't seen anything truly new happen in years.  He wanted to start a clothes closet to serve the needs of the poor and possibly even train some as volunteers/employees.

Over the course of a few months, he did his homework, talked to people about the idea, gauged interest level and planned the project.  He researched other similar projects in other churches and, based on best practices and examples, he designed a doable program that would fit both his congregation and the needs of the community.  It was an uphill battle to get people on board with his idea, but eventually his fellow church members agreed that a clothes closet was a good idea.  He got the green light to go ahead to recruit volunteers, rent a small space and advertise the need for donations.

Things began to really move forward as more people found out about the program.  People donated their clothing, so much so that he soon needed an additional storage space.  Little by little, people were coming from the community to shop as well.  While they never broke even on their expenses, they got a lot of attention.  Everyone believed that this was good thing.  After a year of operation, however, John was frustrated.  The store wasn't selling enough to keep up with expenses and donated clothing was also piling up.  He found himself running the store most of the time as volunteers weren't consistent.  The church was also beginning to think that this wasn't such a good idea, but was struggling for some time to figure out what to do about it.  They were still subsidizing part of the rental costs due to inadequate revenue.  An unspoken tension was growing between John and his supporters.

If you are an entrepreneurial type, then you know what this feels like.  You have probably started projects like this that sounded good but didn't achieve the expected results.  That time of uncertainty about a new business or a new program is a tough place to be in.

Entrepreneurial Traps

There are several traps that founders, entrepreneurs and funders fall into when a program begins to fail.

1. Believing that the idea is too good to fail, and will eventually work if given more time.
2. Believing that we can always just work harder to make this work.
3. Believing that the problem is lack of promotion.  "We just need to sell this to more people."
4. Getting stuck in the emotion of not wanting to pull the plug because of who is involved.
5. Substituting antidotal stories for hard facts.

How to know when to throw in the towel?

Good Idea - Bad Implementation

Most people driven by an idea often believe that the idea itself is strong enough to carry the day, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  Their passion for the idea/project is contagious and people who care about them don't want to crush their spirit by not supporting it.  Creators of good ideas aren't always the best process thinkers that can design a successful venture of program.

One important thing to remember is that good ideas don't normally work that well the first time around. Most ideas take several attempts before they actually work as expected.  Many times the idea isn't at fault, but the implementation of the idea.  If things aren't working as expected after a period of time, the plan should be evaluated and tweaked.  If results are still not there, the plan should be scrapped and a new one put in its place that allows for new leadership, systems, etc.

If the project still isn't working as expected, it may be time to pull the plug, regroup and retry in a different way.  New projects/ideas have a greater probability of failure than of success.  Remember that failure will happen, but it's best to fail as quickly and as cheaply as possible.  If it's still a good idea after failure, then go back to planning for another attempt when possible, but don't allow one failure to ruin the entrepreneurial spirit to keep flowing.

Bad Idea

As an entrepreneur or starter, one of the hardest things to discern is when an idea is actually good or not.  The idea must be then vetted by data, research and throwing it against enough walls to see where it sticks.  If you come to the conclusion that your idea is a bad one, it shouldn't be hard to let it go and throw in the towel.  Probably the hardest thing for an idea person to admit is that his/her idea wasn't a good one.  Remember that, no matter how far down the road you are in implementing a bad idea, it's never too late to quit.  The longer you run with a bad idea, the harder it will be pull the plug due to momentum.  If you don't pull the plug, you will delay spending your energy on implementing a good one.

Conclusion

Last week I saw a boxing trainer throw in the towel while his son was getting pummeled in the last round.  After the fight he had to spend some time calming down his son, who had never experienced defeat in the ring as a pro.  I'm sure his advice is pretty much the same as I would give.  There will always be another fight, but this one wasn't worth dying over.