Believing in your ideas

How do I know an idea I got is probably stupid as hell? I tell it to my partner. His voice either lights up intuitively, or he makes a sound of nervous laughter.

And granted, he's usually right. Or at least that's how I seem to think, because if he makes that nervous laughter sound, I usually never even try the idea out - and thus make sure the idea won't work in practice. Because I didn't even try to find out.

You may also have a person in your life that you run your ideas with, or to whom you show your work for feedback. How do you know their reaction to your content is the same as that of your target audience? Does your person represent your target audience adequately so you can trust their judgement?

Think about this. Think about it deeply. If the answer is no, stop running your ideas with them. The feedback will have no value whatsoever - and what's worse, you may be ditching those brilliant ideas that MJ DeMarco calls golden gumballs.

What if, for an entire year, you didn't tell anyone about the ideas you get or show anyone the product you produced, and just trusted your gut? What if you acted out those ideas and put your products out in the market without asking any initial feedback from anyone? What do you think would happen?

You probably know the answer already, but here it is: the market would give you the feedback. Yes, the market. Not your friend, not someone who wouldn't be interested in your product anyway. The market, aka your target audience, would give you the feedback.

And that is infinitely more valuable than anything your friend/spouse/mom could every say.

Ditch the idea that you need feedback. Just finish your product and put it out there. Let the market tell you if the product is good, or what needs changing.

Trust your ideas, and trust that they'll get better with time.

RK