Nobody Remembers the Naysayers

By on June 1, 2010

Remember when the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, refused to believe that the Dark Lord had returned to cut Harry Potter open, take his blood, mix it with the bones of his father, then burst forth in a blaze of fiery magic?

In a magical world of possibility, Fudge was blind to possibilities. He was a bureaucrat whose close-mindedness led to great losses against the Death Eaters, and you probably don’t remember him because he was a naysayer.

“Nobody remembers the naysayers,” said eternal optimist Bill Clinton in his speech to the graduating class of Yale College last week. “In the end, all that endures are the builders. And in the end, even the builders are forgotten and all that endures are the ripples of what they built.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBDgCATvf6Y

This blog is called Possibilities because I’ve seen too many great ideas not get built when probability gets in the way of possibility. “Unlikely to get past legal,” says the naysayer. Or, “Why waste time when odds for success are so low,” says another. “Too complicated,” they all snap.

Considering possibility means seeing potential, and seeing potential takes an open mind and a builder’s spirit. In my business where ideas are my capital, I come to work each day hoping to think up great ideas, but I’m also looking for the construction crews with the spirit and energy to help me build them. It certainly takes imagination, but it takes a good amount of toil too.

Just consider these nay-sayings that might have killed the possibility of great ideas had the tenacity of idea builders not prevailed:

This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication (Western Union memo, 1876)

We don’t like their sound (Decca Recording Company, in rejecting The Beatles, 1962)

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home (Ken Olson, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977)

So join me in seeing possibilities. Be brave like Harry Potter, and like the gifted wizard apprentice, be remembered and endure.

About Karen Strauss

Doing things based on precedent doesn’t come easily to Karen, which explains why she left law school for the creative side of the communications business. She harnesses the diverse thinking of colleagues to solve challenges creatively. She has launched the firm’s media planning discipline and its open innovation platform, Mindfire. She also authors the firm’s innovation comic strip, which is a popular catalyst for creative thinking.

All posts by Karen Strauss