Creating Spectacular Products Is Downstream From This Revealing Question.
Success is predicated on giving fear the Heisman.
How can I make this work?
There are no inspirational words greater than these. They’re the seeds of every product that’s ever been developed. Regardless of product position in its life cycle, competent management teams wrestle with the concept. Nurturing it is their greatest priority.
Hope is the launchpad from which every idea takes flight. Believers conceive of a better world, improved because of their product. This is why entrepreneurs are willing to trade 40-hour work weeks with predictable stability for 80-hour work weeks laced with perilousness.
An unshakable mindset focused on the imagery of success is a powerful driver. Doubt gets locked in the trunk. Success is predicated on giving fear the Heisman.
Remember the Wallendas, the family that performs on high wires without safety devices? They ride bikes across wires suspended hundreds of feet off the ground. They’ve crossed high wires backward, blindfolded, in pyramid form with multiple performers spanning venues across the planet. They’ve crossed volcanoes, skyscrapers, Niagara Falls, and the Grand Canyon, and have been doing so since 1928. They take the ultimate risk every time they perform, death.
A microcosm of life itself, a Wallenda performance spotlights a small group willing to take precarious risks being watched by legions satisfied to simply watch.
Standing guard over the boneyard of unrealized dreams is the mindset, what are all the reasons this won’t work?
Fear is the flip side of hope. Fear is the insidious killer of ideas, asphyxiating actions. If Karl Wallenda was paralyzed by fear, we’d never know of his family today. His family has mastered squelching the voices of doubt.
Contemplating an idea’s worthiness, the willingness to solve problems or avoid them is the lynchpin. Dealing with the realities of bringing ideas to life, motivations to solve problems are made fruitful with hope, are DOA with fear.
In 1974, Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik struggled with teaching his students spatial relationships and 3D objects. Creating a dynamic, three-dimensional tool to demonstrate design and structural principles, Rubik never intended for his Cube to become a global sensation.
Released internationally in 1980 by Ideal Toy Corp, Rubik’s Cube became one of the most recognized icons in popular culture. In 2014 Rubik’s Cube was inducted into the US Toy Hall of Fame. By 2021 over 450M Cubes were sold, making it the world’s best-selling puzzle game and best-selling toy.
In retrospect, Rubik’s success journey might look like this: Develop a teaching tool. Create a prototype with wooden blocks. Enlist sales support by taking it to regional toy fairs. Broadcast new plastic product in ad campaigns to expand reach. Promote speed-solving contests. Grow sales. Sell company to manufacturing and marketing behemoth.
Sounds doable, who doesn’t want that?
What’s not popularly known: Patent lawsuits plagued Rubik’s Cube nearly from its inception. In addition to Hungarian and US patents, a competitor in Japan was granted a Japanese patent complicating life for Rubik. Trademark lawsuits in Germany were upheld, but similar rotating toys increased competition. When Rubik’s patent expired in 2000, sales of Chinese knockoffs exploded.
Sounds nasty, who wants that?
Whether you’re a Zen practitioner of yin and yang’s philosophy of the interconnectedness of opposite forces or simply observant, the good life comes with troubles. Ships staying in the harbor don’t fight the storms encountered by ships on the open sea. But ships staying in the harbor don’t go anywhere. The depth of your willingness to leave the harbor for entice foreign ports, despite the anticipated storms, defines the height of your enterprising spirit.
If you have aspirations of bringing a concept to life, ask yourself?
What do I have to lose? Whatever actions you take produce value and notch growth.
Are my fears greater than my aspirations? Remember, one of the greatest regrets on deathbeds is not taking more chances.
Do I want to be known as a doer or a watcher? Hopeful doers make things happen, often achieving in the face of insurmountable odds.
The next hour, week, month, year, and decade will go by whether you take action on your ideas or not. You can’t escape the troubles having your name on them. With this mindset, breathing life into your ideas is your best option. Regardless of the outcome, you’ll be better for trying.
Squeezing the most life out of your years is a better trade than squeezing the most years out of your life.