Jeremiahs!

We all know what it’s like to have what we think is a good idea, excitedly tell it to someone, and then to have them say the idea sucks.

When someone tells you your view of things is wrong or ridiculous, there are a few possibilities.  They might be right.  Or you might be a bad salesman.  Certainly many bad ideas have been conceived, and many good ideas have been poorly presented.  But in addition to these possibilities, people seem to just be wired to think, by default, that anything that is too different from what they already “know”, is wrong.  And people seem to really enjoy telling others how wrong their ideas are.  Regardless of how great your ideas are, or how good of a salesman you are, people are going to tell you your ideas are crap.

Felix Dennis wrote an excellent book called “How To Get Rich”.  He says that no matter what, if you have a new idea there will be no shortage of people telling you your idea sucks.  He calls these people “Jeremiahs”, and I love this term because it gives a name to such a common experience.

If people criticize your ideas, first listen to them and see if they have valid points.  Try to improve your skills at selling your ideas.  But at the end of the day, if you still think your ideas are good, you should go ahead with them because the Jeremiahs will be out in full force regardless of how good your ideas are.

The next time someone tells you your view of the world is wrong, you can simply say, “Thank you Jeremiah!”