while(self++) { #47 } // An Idea Is Never Enough
How you present it counts, too. Especially when other people need to be involved. Chances are, you need other human beings to get your idea off the ground. Whether it’s a startup, or a big corporation.
A coworker of mine had a good idea about how to improve the mobile app that we both work on. He made a little proof of concept and showed it to me. I liked it very much, and encouraged him to show it to our higher-ups. A few days later, I asked him if he had shown the modified app to our team lead or product manager. He hadn’t; it needed more tweaking, he said, and he didn’t want to show it until it had the polish necessary to wow others. And it wasn’t the best time to either; we were enormously busy with another big project.
He told me about how Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Chief Design Officer, valued the importance of patience in scenarios like these. You may have the perfect idea, a gamechanger potentially. But when you present it, if your timing is off or you give a lasting, imprecise first impression, it’s more than possible that your idea won’t be accepted. If no one bites, your big juicy worm will go untouched. Patience, my coworker suggested. Patience. He would bide his time. He would make his proof of concept shine. And when things were less hectic at the front, he’d make his move. I have high hopes for him and his idea. We’ll see what happens.
