Sometimes people don’t reject your idea because it’s bad. They reject it because, if they admit it’s good, they’d have to admit they’ve been thinking wrong for years. And that’s much harder than finding a flaw in someone else’s proposal.
Resistance might then sound like this: that it’s not the right time. That it won’t work here. That you just got lucky. That it’s too risky. That they would do it differently. On paper, it will look like reasonable resistance, but underneath it often lies only the need to preserve one’s self-image.
For years, I thought people were always looking for the best solution. Today, I wonder how often we’re just looking for confirmation that we don’t have to change our minds.
That’s why many good ideas die long before they get a chance to show their true worth. Not because they’re bad, but because they ask people for the hardest thing to give: to reexamine themselves.
So don’t measure the value of your idea by how many people accepted it right away. Some of the best ideas initially provoke more resistance than enthusiasm.
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