The Biggest Reasons Your Big Idea Failed

Have you ever had one of those really big ideas, the kind that’s certain to produce breakthrough, revolutionary results? Have you ever had trouble bringing it to life?

You have had some big ideas about how you could improve your results. You’ve had some great ideas about how you could make things better at work. And you’ve had some gigantic ideas that would produce dramatically better results for your dream clients.

But your big ideas stalled out. They died prematurely. Here’s why and what to do about it.

You Didn’t Sell It

Without the support of the people you need to make your big idea work, it isn’t going anywhere. If you didn’t make selling your big idea a marketing campaign, selling it to the people you needed onboard, your big idea was doomed from the start.

Executing a big idea is 10% big idea and 90% big execution. Half of that 90% of execution is pure sales and marketing: you have to go and change hearts and minds.

If you want your big idea to succeed, you have to sell it. You have to shout it from the treetops, sharing your idea far and wide. You also have to go from individual to individual, building consensus around your big idea.

You Didn’t Execute It

If your idea failed, it’s not likely that the idea itself was bad. It’s more likely that your execution was bad. You took half-measures when full measures were required. You underfunded it in both time and money. You underestimated the effort required to get the idea up and running.

The world is littered with great ideas and great insights that went nowhere because someone lacked the will to execute on them.

Most of the time your big ideas have value. If you are going to make them work, you have to relentlessly focus on the execution. Spend more time taking actions—and gaining the commitments of others to take action on your big idea—than you do talking about how wonderful your idea is.

You Gave Up Too Soon

Sometimes you sell the idea well and you start to execute. But the results aren’t there; they come slowly and only with great effort. So you throw in the towel, believing that your big idea wasn’t so great an idea after all.

But the tipping point, the point where the breakthrough you imagined occurs, is always just a bit beyond that point where most people give up.

If you want to see your big idea come to life and produce the results you imagined, you have to see it through. You have to continue to sell it and continue to execute throughout the dark place where it seems hopeless, where it seems it’s a lost cause. When everyone else is ready to throw in the towel, you rally the troops and push through until you get your big idea to breakthrough.

Don’t make these three mistakes and see your big idea generate the big results you dreamed it would.

Questions

Why do most big ideas fail?

How do you get the support you need to make your big idea a reality? Whose support do you need?

What are the steps large and small that you need to execute for your big idea to work? What does your action plan for taking these steps look like?

How do you keep going through the dark spots where it looks hopeless for your big idea? What do you do to push through?