Believing in A Crazy Vision

Every single technology you use today was originally doomed to fail.

The reason why technology gets created is because a single person believed the idea was possible. It could be one person or a group of people, but the majority of the population thought the idea, before it was created and used, was impossible. This applies to any modern technology whether it is the telephone, the television, the car, the computer, airplanes, or even a coffee pot.

The general population thought the idea itself was doomed to fail because it was impossible to accomplish. However, these things exist because someone believed they would work. They envisioned the product working and then put sweat and time into it in order to make it succeed.

This is the difference between entrepreneurs who fail and those who succeed. The successful ones push themselves to success. They succeed by believing in an impossible idea and then spending all their time executing on it. Believing in the idea is not enough. Execution is critical. But, belief is what keeps you going in the face of failure.

In order to “change the world” you have to work on something that is world changing. The only ideas that are world changing are ideas people currently think are impossible to accomplish. If someone could easily accomplish it, it wouldn’t be world changing.

The 4 Minute Mile

Before 1954 many thought running a mile in less than 4 minutes was physically impossible. A handful of people were pushing themselves as hard as they could to break the 4-minute barrier. Roger Bannister was the first, followed by John Landy fourty-six days later.

Once the 4-minute barrier was broken, people’s mindsets began to change. No longer was the 4-minute mile impossible. Everyone knew it could now be accomplished. Once this mindset changed, people started beating the 4-minute mile. Running a sub 4-minute mile is now the barrier to entry for male middle distance runners.

Something that was once thought to be impossible is now considered the standard.

Continue Despite Failure

You have to believe fundamentally in your vision. Don’t let set backs deter your vision. If you believe strongly enough in your vision, you know it will work, you just need to figure out the strategy to get there.

I recently watched Ev Williams, the founder of blogger and Twitter, speak. Ev said, he is good at thinking about a single problem for a long period of time. Being obsessed with a problem or product helps you identify solutions. Most of your proposed solutions won’t work. You will fail with these attempts at a solution.

The failures will attempt to push you around. Don’t give in. These failures will shape you and help mold you into a stronger person. Every successful person has had a string of failures behind them. Not one, not two, but hundreds. The only way to achieve success is to learn and learning means failure.

The differentiator of the truly successful are the those who keep going despite failure. The ones who get up every morning just for the opportunity to succeed.