Hey Athlete,"Keep Going!" Here Comes the Naysayer!

By June Blanks

In building my company, I have adopted the marathon pace. I'm out there every day – pushing, shaping, zoning on thoughts, weighing them with varying partners, pushing on and testing the company's form against time.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins describes the "Build-up Breakthrough Flywheel" model of momentum and you can relate – you are forming a base, pushing it forward, and building more, repeat. You're thinking about the masses, you are thinking about your audience, playing devils advocate, looking at your business upside down, surveying your audience, taking your focus group feedback in stride, engaging, building, creating, repeat.

You are out there, sweating you socks off (with both smiles and grunts) and here s(he) comes…the naysayer! Oh #@%, you think. You look for an escape route, but there is none. Here comes the naysayer's script:

Naysayer: "What are you up to?"

Marathoner: (You are positive, tell them of your advances, but it doesn't matter what you say.)

[The naysayer looks at you sideways.]

Naysayer: "Well, I had a really hard time with that. Maybe you are biting off more than you can chew. Maybe you should try developing a tadpole instead of a sailboat. I mean, they both go in water and the vast majority of new products fail anyway."

[You look at them sideways and bring the near-by ac unit down on their head! Oh yeah, maybe that was High Fidelity…]

The naysayer, el negativo, has been really bothering me. In the past I have gotten stuck at looking at the naysayer sideways, but I started to think about the naysayer differently after two ideas converged:

One, my strategy for new contacts: I have developed a list of concepts about how I want to engage different contacts. For example, if the person is a potential investor I have already brainstormed conversation points. If a person is a potential resource I have brainstormed how I can engage them in a way they feel they are also benefitting. If a person's business or organization offers the potential for collaboration I dig at more about those angles of the operation. I give and take a card, take notes, and make contact immediately (check that momentum).

Two, in the Threshold post - "Don't be a sprinter" we see that having a person on board who can point out the holes in your strategy is invaluable.

The naysayer isn't necessarily any person you want at the table, I believe there is a difference between a totally negative force and someone who can actually point out gaps. However, I do think that next time I will be prepared to constructively redirect. When the naysayer pokes a hole in your balloon, you've got to keep the passion alive. You can't win a marathon if you let that bugger cramp your style a few miles in. If nothing else, pick their brain as if they are your most unlikely customer.

I do believe that entrepreneurs are creative athletes. We are driven to create, push harder, and win. Some of us will stand out because of our passion, "the will to win, the spark within. Passion – to play through pain and love the game. Passion – to break the chain and blaze the flame." And don't forget the unattributed adage, "Winners do what losers won't."