Big, world-changing ideas do not come along often. And when they do, they can be incredibly hard for people to swallow. People like the status quo in fact and when you come along and try to change that, you will always meet resistance. People are afraid of change.
And people – as a whole – are also unfortunately lacking in ambition often. If you tell someone that you’re going to be a rock star or an astronaut, the most common reaction you’ll get is disbelief. This is a shame though: someone has to make it after all!
With all that in mind though, how can you go about convincing people to put their faith (and cash) behind your idea? If you want to do something big, how do you get others on board?
The Power of Credibility
This is actually the very same problem that Elon Musk faced when he wanted to send a man into space. Musk is taken seriously by everyone now but at the time, he was completely unknown. All he knew, was that it was his mission to make space tourism a reality. And he was disenfranchised with the attempts made by NASA and others at that time.
He thus came up with an idea of a prize to motivate companies into creating the technology necessary to make his vision a reality. The only problem? He didn’t have the money and no one believed that he could offer it!
His solution was to make his initial presentation alongside enthusiastic engineers and astronauts. He found people that were as passionate about his idea as he was and by doing this, he lent his entire concept credibility. People would have laughed him off the stage but not when he appeared alongside such luminaries.
How to Get Credibility for Your Big Idea
So, the next time you have a big idea for a business, think about how you can get others to buy into it and who it would take to convince them. If it sounds stupid coming from you, then speak to someone who won’t think it’s stupid and who will be able to convince others.
And this is actually the advantage of having a ‘big idea’ – it will automatically be more exciting than a small idea and so you’ll find there will be people out there who want to become ambassadors for it. You just have to find them!
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