Entrepreneurial Proverbs

Earlier today I stumbled upon this fantastic blog post on the O'Reilly Radar entitled "Entrepreneurial Proverbs". These "proverbs" are specifically intended for folk like myself looking to make the transition from the tech world to the business world. The article had such a profound effect on me that I printed it out for future reference (a rarity if you knew the way I conserved ink).

While each and every proverb has quite a bit of value, one particular quote by computer pioneer Howard Aiken in a proverb struck close to home and reassured me that some of the doubts that I expressed in my Humble Pie post a few days back were normal. The quote is "Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats."

I suppose that sometimes I forget that not everyone's mind works like mine - not everyone thinks about change and improvement and growth as much as I do - not everyone "thinks" like an entrepreneur. When I launched my enhanced collectibles browsing, which I think falls into the "original" category, I figured that everyone who tried it out would be wowed.

When the initial responses were mixed, I immediately looked at myself and questioned if there was something that I had missed. When I mentioned it to fellow entrepreneurs, they all echoed Howard Aiken's sentiments - most people DON'T like change and it will probably take them a while to get used to it.

And the more that I think about it, it would be sort of strange if everyone embraced it immediately. I mean, what innovative technology DIDN'T struggle to get noticed? The other day I mentioned Chester Carlson and the photocopier and there are hundreds of other examples - Bill Gates with Microsoft among them. Now, obviously, I don't think that my innovation is on par with those things, but it does help fuel the fire to know that nearly all entrepreneurs struggled initially and that their immense persistence was as much a part of their success as the product itself.