Do you have an idea that is failing to launch? Seth Godin, the NetworkingBlogFather, calls ideas that explode Purple Cows. If your purple cow is failing to launch, there is a tendency to want to explain this away as ‘well they just don’t understand the idea or the potential’.
I have engaged in this line of thought, too, thinking that an idea I had was just waiting to go viral. If just the right person picked it up, or just the right person saw the potential, then surely it would explode across the Internets.
Then I read Disrupt You! by Jay Samit and came across this line:
It is not incumbent upon the world to conform to your vision of change. – Jay Samit
This rocked my metaphorical world. I’d been expecting the potential of my idea to speak to people, to speak for itself.
But, that’s not how this works. If a consumer has to realize the potential of the idea and look passed delivery of the same, the idea will probably not launch.
If your idea isn’t launching, take an objective look (or have someone else do so).
Does the idea answer a specific, easily articulated need?
If not, it is incumbent on YOU as the idea owner to figure out a new approach.