Assuming the No

Recently, I wrote about the pursuit of the Big Idea, and how we prevent ourselves from making them into reality.

One of the reasons we use to prevent our development of Big Ideas is:

We decide we can’t get buy-in from needed partners or leaders.

This is "Assuming the No".

People in direct sales are very familiar with this, and to be successful, they have to do a very good job in overcoming what I suspect is a natural inclination to assume people don't want you, your ideas, your products, or your services.

I struggle with this myself! I have a nearly pathological fear of approaching people I don't already know in order to sell my services (and yes, I'm working on that).

This is related to something a friend and I were discussing the other day - the idea that we have

Protip:  Grumpy Cat will not be on board.

been programmed to ask for permission to do anything.

Starting as small children, we need to ask for permission from parents, teachers, pastors, coaches and a whole host of other people.  As adults, we include needing the permission of bosses, coworkers, vendors, and customers.

When we become small business people, we then retain this habit, even when we don't have to!

So this is what we do:

1. We ask or wait for permission
2. We assume that permission will not be granted.

I want to explore asking for permission further in another post, so lets get back to that NO you think you're going to get, and let's assume you do need "permission" to proceed with the idea (such as buy-in from a potential partner).

We all know the saying about assuming things (and if you want to see the origin of the phrase, as far as I can tell, take a few minutes and watch this scene from The Odd Couple - classic!) but that's not the real core of this problem.

Why are we automatically assuming that NO is the answer?

What happens if we change our minds and assume that YES is the answer? That the idea will sound as good to other people as it does to us?  That they, too, will be swept up in the excitement of our Big Idea?

Unlike when we were kids, where we learned that Mom and Dad were absolutely not going to allow us to eat candy for dinner every night, there's no good reason to assume that every person will give you no for an answer other than our own doubts and fears.

Here's a challenge: for one week, in everything you do, to assume that whenever you need buy-in from somebody else, that the answer will be YES.  Don't let your fear of no prevent you from getting that client, partner, or Big Idea off the ground.

Start assuming the yes.

I bet it's going to change your perception of what you can do - and you'll discover that it was you saying no far more often than other people.

Try it, and let me know how it goes!

You can always drop me a note at AbanicoMktg@gmail.com or comment below.

What's the Big Idea?

Ever get an idea that was so powerful it felt like literally getting hit in the head when it occurred to you?  It’s one of the best feelings in the world, isn't it?

True, 99% of these ideas are unworkable as originally imagined, and maybe a third are workable in a refined form.  Regardless, some of my best work comes from these “lightning bolt” moments - the times when I become struck with a truly Big Idea.

So, after the initial shock of it wears off, what happens next, typically?

I've noticed that it’s very common for us to dismiss Big Ideas offhand.  We let the Big Idea just die. We do this for a lot of reasons:

Probably both?

We decide we don’t have (and can never get) the resources necessary to execute this Big Idea.

We decide we can’t get buy-in from needed partners or leaders.

We decide that the idea is so fanciful it’s completely unrealistic to spend any time developing it.

We decide that the idea must have too many fatal flaws - if it is such a great idea, why isn't somebody else doing it?

Or, most tragically, we decide that the idea is just too good or too big for somebody like us.

Much of the time, this decision is made before doing any research, any discussion, or any planning. It’s automatically rejected out of hand before any development happens.

Every great idea was at one time just somebody’s “aha” moment - nothing more than a Big Idea.

Take Jeff Bezos and Amazon.  Do you think when he first considered selling things on the internet, that he had the huge logistical problem completely worked out before he started writing his business plan?  Do you think, at that stage, he had any idea what Amazon would become?

Nope – he wanted in on the ground floor of the coming eCommerce revolution, and he saw books as his way to do it - so he wrote a plan, got the partners he needed, they solved the problems that arose, and changed shopping on the internet as we knew it. 

Learn more about how Amazon came to be here: Freshdesk: Amazon's Road to Customer Happiness

The point is, if Bezos had listened to conventional wisdom about profitability, and logistics, and a host of other things, Amazon would not exist.  Now, you can argue somebody else would have done something similar, and maybe that's true - but it was Bezos who created Amazon and changed our world.

There is no reason in this world you can't do it, too. Imagine how amazing the world would be if we all developed those Big Ideas into reality!

Do me – and the world – a favor.  Write down your next great “aha” moment and let that big idea breathe.  Don't let it die before you give it a chance.

Who knows?  The next Big Idea that changes the world could be yours!