"That'll NEVER Work..."

28 replies
How many times have you heard that line during your career?

As a person who frequently gets many new and exciting ideas, I'll bet I've heard it a lot more than most of you. But you know what? I think most of the time, the people who tell us this are WRONG.

Truth is, there's only one way to find out. If you have what you think is a great idea, just take action. Do it.

You'll never know if you don't even try.

Tina
#thatll never work
  • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
    Originally Posted by Tinkerbell View Post

    As a person who frequently gets many new and exciting ideas, I'll bet I've heard it a lot more than most of you. But you know what? I think most of the time, the people who tell us this are WRONG.
    Not necessarily. Sometimes, people get so enamored with their great new idea that they completely overlook reality. And, unfortunately, sometimes the reality is that their idea will never work.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

      Not necessarily. Sometimes, people get so enamored with their great new idea that they completely overlook reality. And, unfortunately, sometimes the reality is that their idea will never work.
      Great ideas are supposed to overlook "reality." That's what makes them great.
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    • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
      Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

      Not necessarily. Sometimes, people get so enamored with their great new idea that they completely overlook reality. And, unfortunately, sometimes the reality is that their idea will never work.
      I agree with that. Some people just come up with the most unfeasible ideas.

      I like that they dream and all, but they aren't able to find the middle point where the dream can be turned into a reality.

      In this case, doubting yourself is probably good.

      While I always like to give something a try before I say it won't work, sometimes you have to listen to your rational side when it comes to things like this.
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    • Profile picture of the author jcoolbaugh
      Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

      Not necessarily. Sometimes, people get so enamored with their great new idea that they completely overlook reality. And, unfortunately, sometimes the reality is that their idea will never work.

      The reverse of this is when a person comes up with a GREAT idea, and then refuses to listen to the experience of those who could help them implement it. Then when plans fail, it is assumed it was a bad idea instead of a good one poorly executed.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kevin AKA Hubcap
        As in most things there is no clear and direct line of distinction between a great idea and a crazy idea.

        Situations differ, people differ. A great idea for me might not be great for someone else. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.

        Ultimately if you think an idea is great it's up to you to run with it regardless of what others think. If it succeeds you learn something. If it fails you learn something.

        Also ...I'm all for due diligence but I also believe in following your gut.

        I can't tell you the amount of time and energy I've devoted to "wondering" whether an idea is feasible. I think we all have an internal mechanism which determines if an ideal has legs. When that mechanism does not discard the idea you should seriously consider it. In my case, I could've saved countless hours by just implementing and would have had an answer...yea or nay...without the brain ache or time drain.

        It's wise to listen to the experts but remember their opinions, like every one else's, are colored by their experience. In the minds of executives running publishing houses, a book about a boy wizard was too long and involved to ever be taken to heart. As we all know, the Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling proved those executives wrong and in the process turned the children's book industry on its ear.

        Kevin
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  • Profile picture of the author Bev Clement
    I think if a person really believes an idea will work, they should just do it and not ask anybody's opinion.

    Everybody will have an opinion, and not all opinions are the same.

    Sometimes a person will have knowledge to back up their opinions, which need to be considered as well
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  • Profile picture of the author Tinkerbell
    Dan,

    You're right. "Sometimes" people refuse to accept reality. But I still say "many" times people who tell us something will never work really mean they'd never try it *themselves* so it would never work for them. That does not mean it will not work for anybody.


    Bev,

    I agree...
    I agree...
    and
    I agree...

    Tina
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  • Profile picture of the author JayXtreme
    I've always been an action kinda person.

    You can ask anybody who knows me, they will all tell you that if I get an idea in my head, then I'm gonna have to do something about it. I'm prepared to do something, even if it's messed up, just to prove to myself.

    I will get a result no matter what.

    Good or bad, I will know if something works or doesn't (more often it is the latter, but those build character..lolz)

    Way back when I had dreamz of working alone (14 years old)... I was already helping in family business and with my Uncle in his home business.

    My mother told me to stay away from my home business, and focus on building what my Father had started... bleh! to that

    My way worked out just fine an dandy!

    Peace

    Jay
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  • Profile picture of the author Lisa Gergets
    You can ask anybody who knows me, they will all tell you that if I get an idea in my head, then I'm gonna have to do something about it. I'm prepared to do something, even if it's messed up, just to prove to myself.
    Ditto on that. I love trying things out, experimenting...if it doesn't work it's one more way I know it doesn't work. So what! LOL
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  • Profile picture of the author Anthony Tilley
    It's wrong to say an idea is right or wrong straight off the bat without any kind of
    research behind it.
    Both sides need the facts before making a judgement.

    I have lost count the number of times I thought of a great idea for a niche only to find it's already been done to death or alternatively no one is as interested in it as I thought.

    You've just got to keep on plugging away, and hope they are the wrong ones and not you!
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  • Profile picture of the author Tinkerbell
    If all failures are actually a success (you succeeded in finding one more way NOT to do something) does that mean all successes are actually failures in that by achieving success you failed to fail?

    Jay, I LOVE your signature. Hilarious, and so true.

    As to your response, I think everyone needs to find their own way.

    The thing is, sometimes people are afraid (unlike you) to give their ideas a try...especially after hearing "That'll never work" from people they know, love, and trust (read that "family" mostly, lol).

    My point with my post was to say, "Ignore them and do it anyway. You'll never know if you don't at least try."

    Tina
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by Tinkerbell View Post

    But you know what? I think most of the time, the people who tell us this are WRONG.
    There's a reason for this.

    It is simply impossible for a person of average intelligence to tell the difference between the outrageously brilliant and the monumentally stupid.

    Because no matter how you slice it, both of them are simply from a different planet.

    The only thing people really know is intellectual distance. How far is this from the sort of things that I think? If it's not very far, then it's probably not that bad. But if it is... then you have to figure out where you are on the scale.

    If you're of average intelligence, then no matter how far away it is, there's equal likelihood for it to be brilliant or stupid.

    If you're of low intelligence (and you know it), then the farther away it gets, the more likely it is to be smart. There simply aren't as many people dumber than you as there are smarter than you.

    But if you're smart... especially if you're one of those rarefied individuals that people call a "genius"... the converse applies. There simply aren't so many people smarter than you. So the farther away the idea is from your own thought processes, the more likely it is to be stupid.

    Trouble is, there's a spanner in the works, because even people of average intelligence and lower can have brilliant ideas. As they say, even a blind dog finds a bone once in a while.

    So just because there are more people of one category or another doesn't actually impact the likelihood of an idea being brilliant or stupid. It could be either one, no matter how brilliant or stupid the person is.
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  • Profile picture of the author JasonHicks
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author kevinfar
      Originally Posted by JasonHicks View Post

      Depends who's saying it.

      If a very smart man who's ran multiple million dollar company's tells you an idea will not work, it's probably a good idea to listen.

      I would be cautious of listening to someone like that because chances are that such a person has his own interest at heart when telling you that your idea is not good enough.

      If you are certain that it is not the case, then by all means abandon your idea, even though personally, I feel that no idea can lead to failures; only things from which you can learn through.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
      Banned
      Originally Posted by JasonHicks View Post

      If a very smart man who's ran multiple million dollar company's tells you an idea will not work, it's probably a good idea to listen.
      Not unless your name is Stephen King, Thomas Edison, The Beatles, Surgery Binn and Larry Page, John Grisham ... And about a million more examples. These people didn't listen to the experts and decided to keep on endeavouring. We can be glad they did because the World is a better place because of them.

      (I'm not saying people should discount all advice just remember that their dream is more important than what other people may think.)

      If you would have asked anyone in Internet Marketing whether a 20-year-old kid with no experience and no resources could sell untargeted advertising space for $1 per pixel thereby making $1 Million in a couple of months most people would have laughed. (In fact some of them did.) Well, that's been accomplished also.

      I'm of the opinion that anyone can accomplish anything.
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  • Profile picture of the author David McKee
    Great Thread!

    Here is an example: Find out what everyone else is doing, and then, do the opposite. Not always an effective strategy, but let's look at a concrete example:

    Everyone says that to be an effective affiliate marketer you must "find a niche", be a "niche marketer", "dominate your niche", or even find a "micro niche" and dominate that.

    Why if you micro-size your niche enough, eventually you niche will be so small that there will be no customers at all.

    Grocery stores on the other hand are not niche marketers...on the contrary, they are "Muchly Marketers" (for want of a better term to be opposite of niche). They market muchly.

    So, a person could be a Muchly Affiliate Marketer - and have every conceivable product known to Affiliate mankind.

    Would it work? I bet it would.

    -DTM
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  • Profile picture of the author David McKee
    Sometimes the idea that does not work simply has the wrong person behind it.
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  • Profile picture of the author CliveG
    If we are honest with ourselves, however open minded we are we have probably said it ourselves and been proved wrong. I know I have. I'm more careful now.

    (I've also said it and been proved right though.)
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  • Profile picture of the author silvervixen
    I think most advice is well intentioned, however, if you have an idea that you think is great, then put it into action. If if it doesn't work, learn WHY it didn't work, and improve on it or move on to something else.

    Internet marketing is all about testing, testing, and more testing. You will never know if your idea is good or not if you never try it at all!
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  • Profile picture of the author Susanna Dodd
    how do you know if a great idea is bad or good unless that person acts upon it? Yes, not everybody has a good idea, but it you go in with the attitude that no one will like your idea, then you will never know if it was good or not.

    I have tried and failed at many different things, but I will never succeed if I never try. That's how a lot of these millionaires became just that.
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  • Profile picture of the author VeitSchenk
    it's always easy to say "ah, (s)he succeeded because they never gave up". Think Howard Schulz and pitching the coffee-house idea to 200+ investors, the chicken-soup-of-the-pretty-much-anything empire, also 200+ pitches before anybody bought the idea.
    if you truly believe in it AND it won't bankrupt you pursuing it, go for it. If it screws your life or that of your family, ditch the idea.

    V.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulie888
    I think that many times that phrase is uttered out of envy by people who are just too chicken to try anything out of the box, mostly out of fear of failure. At the same time, they DON'T want someone close to them trying it out for fear that it may work. It's a catch-22 kind of thing that keeps them paralyzed and immobilized with inaction.

    I think inaction is FAR bigger problem than taking action, especially in this IM industry. Many people seem to spend years "educating" themselves about all the latest techniques, but never actually implement a single thing, and I think that is such a shame!
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  • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
    When I decide to do something I don't tell anyone . It is my a$$ if it works or if it doesn't .

    I would rather hear " I didn't think that would work." Or "That will not work" and I show them proof to the contrary .
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  • Profile picture of the author Shannon Herod
    Hey Tina,

    I am an idea person myself. I often have too many ideas to act on. Sometimes that is a blessing, and sometimes it is a nightmare :-)

    But, I believe in action. If I have a fantastic idea I take action on it and see if it will work. There's been many times that someone told me that an idea would not work, but it ended up working.

    Now, I will ask people's advice and I will take their advice seriously. But I have also come to realize who the naysayers are. It does not matter what you're doing or how you're doing it they are going to tell you it's going to fail. They want you to fail because they do not want to succeed. They do not want to see you succeed. They do not want you to leave them behind.

    So, their only defense mechanism against that is to tell you that it will never work. That way, they think that you will not try it.

    Unfortunate but true.

    But, we all need to take action in order for anything to come to fruition anyway.

    Talk soon,

    Shannon Herod
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    If people like Sylvester Stallone, Col. Sanders, and Cynthia Kersey listened to all the "noise" and the "experts" that it couldn't be done, none of use would have ever heard of them, tried out their chicken recipe, seen their movies, or been motivated by their books.

    It's true that they could have failed and not succeeded at their endeavors, but there's something to be said by trying - and trying hard! As far as reality goes, I like Deepak Chopra's quote "there is no actual reality, only the perception of reality".

    RoD
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  • Profile picture of the author Tinkerbell
    Wow. I went off to write some articles, and came back to all this!
    Thanks for all the responses. Some thought-inspiring stuff in here for sure.

    Tina
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  • Profile picture of the author tomsmart80
    absolutely great post keep it
    always use the nike strategy
    and one more
    DONT GIVE UP
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