Stop. Pick one. You can either (1) defend your idea to everyone you encounter, or you can (2) act on your idea. Unless you’re one of the characters from Twilight, you probably won’t have enough time or energy to do both.
We all have jobs, families, and responsibilities. And chances are, your dream has to come in between all those things. You can’t drop the ball in those areas in order to follow your dream.
That means your time is limited. You don’t have enough time or energy to act and defend those actions. You have to choose one.
Last year I started a new business to help bloggers. It’s a stock photo site that gives bloggers unlimited photos for a small monthly fee. It was a genius idea that I knew many of my friends would be interested in. I was so eager to share the idea with everyone I knew.
But I held my tongue. I held my tongue because of the name I was going to give to this new venture. I planned to call it Mopho.to (pronounced mofo). If you’re familiar with the slang term mofo, you’ll know it has a rather vulgar connotation. And since I worked in the church world, I knew many people would advise me against the name. I knew I’d be defending the idea more than I actually got to work on the project.
You see; Mopho.to wasn’t necessarily for the church world. It was for bloggers. Mopho.to would be a memorable name for a valuable service. I was settled on the idea. So I chose to keep it quiet. I chose to be stealthy as I devised, designed, and developed the idea.
It’s too easy to get bogged down in defending our actions instead of actually acting. That’s why I frankly prefer to keep silent sometimes. I don’t even tell people what I’m up to so I don’t have to defend it. I call it being secretly awesome.
I didn’t let many people in on the idea until it was ready to be seen. And at that point, it was too late for a name change. So I got only a fraction of the criticism I would have heard if I’d revealed the name sooner. (I still get the occasional, indignant email from church folks.)
The truth is, I don’t need people’s permission to act on my ideas. I don’t need a thumbs-up before I can act on the dream in my head. But when I spend all my time defending my ideas to other people, I put myself in a position of asking permission from those people. The only permission you need to follow your dream is from the One who put it in your heart in the first place. And if He put it there, He’s given you permission to pursue it.
Again, I’m not saying you avoid good, godly counsel. I did share my idea with a few trusted friends. I shared the idea with my family. And I did have to defend the name to those people. But I knew they had my back and wanted me to succeed. I gladly spent the time walking them through the logic and the rationale for my idea. They didn’t all agree with my thought process, but they cheered me on as I pursued the business.
Those are the people you want to tell. Those are the people you want to include in your dream. They might not agree, but they’ll still encourage you. And they’ll provide wise counsel to keep you from making big mistakes.
The rest of the people…you don’t need their permission. You don’t have to include them in the process. They can love or hate the finished product, but they won’t derail you from producing it.
Use your time wisely. You don’t have enough time to defend and act. Choose action.
Great post. I resonated with it when you wrote The truth is, I don’t need people’s permission to act on my ideas. Too often I think this is what stopping people from doing great work. If you did over again, would you have told people about your idea sooner? (BTW I just checked out mopho.to and it looks great.)
Thanks! Glad you liked the site. 🙂 I’d probably do exactly what I did. I told those who would be most excited about the idea…then once it launched I let other people know. It’s always surprising the people who you never expected to be excited about the idea that actually are.
Love the idea of not waiting for permission to act on ideas! Too often I feel like I am waiting for something to give me the OK to go for my goals – not necessarily permission but just the right conditions, some secret signal from God, everything to align perfectly – things that aren’t going to happen.
I try to use my blog to encourage myself & others to pursue our dreams passionately & use it all to glorify God.
You’ll never get permission. Go for it. 🙂