When you’re thinking about pulling the plug
“Shit. Even my best friend, on top of my mother, thinks I should give up on this and do something else instead. But I don’t know why… After all the research I’ve done, and info I’ve found, I really feel I should go at it.”
– Anonymous
* * *
No two projects are the same.
In the “identical twins” sense of the word.
Yet,
cause you,
me,
or anyone is always 100% sure that what each of us have in mind makes sense,
and can work out…
if put to the test…
we ask “What do you think of this project (of mine), I just told you about?”,
to a few people we trust.
Let them be friends,
some colleagues we’re close with,
or loved ones.
But as soon as we start doing that;
asking people around for their opinion,
and hoping someone will say “Yes,
I think this could work )”,
we get three (3) kinds of feedback;
First one,
the kind that opens our eyes;
“Oh ! You’re right ! I didn’t see this. Thank you”.
Then,
there’s the kind that gets us to shake our head down,
and fell somewhat ashamed.
“Ugh. She’s right. It’s not as good as I thought. It got so obvious when she asked me that question, and all I could say was: “I don’t know. I didn’t even think about that”. (…) But maybe I could actually use this, her comments. To change my project a bit. And make it better. If I can…”
The third kind of feedback?
This one is some sort of a “Trojan horse”.
Cause…
it’s a comment that sounds like it’s about your project but…
when you let it sink in…
you realize it’s in fact about you.
About how unfit,
or how “you don’t have what it takes to get things done”,
and make the-project-you-have-in-mind come true.
At least in the eyes of the person you opened up to,
about your idea.
“Well… Even ____ (fill the blank with the name of a famous person or known company), who had more ____ (ex: experience, money, resources) than you do, failed at this. What makes you think you’ll be able to succeed?”
This kind of feedback tends to be the one that hurts the most.
Even if,
afterwards,
the person who made the comment says:
“I didn’t want to be rude… But I thought you’d want me to be honest”.
Yet,
it still hurts.
So much so that,
in some cases,
it’s enough to make us want to pull the plug,
on a project we got excited about.
And pull it,
even before we took the time to check if,
anyone around us…
or in the past…
ever had a project like ours and made it work out.
How can we shake off the feedback that can have this sort of impact on us,
then?
And that helps us in no way,
at getting ourselves one step or…
even one inch…
closer to our goal?
There’s an equation you can use.
To decide if you should (whether) pull the plug on that thing you care about,
or keep going at it.
The formula goes like this:
“A friend told me that if anyone is moaning about a thing (you’re doing), take that amount of people, divide it by the total amount of people on the planet, and that’s how many fucks you should give.”
– James WATT, co-founder of Brew Dog; a Scottish craft beer brewery [ 1 ]
If it’s only to help you…
or anyone,
to put things in perspective,
learning math proves to be useful.
I mean,
despite those who might moan about math, in the first place.
Or end up punching you in the guts,
with the comments they’ll make about a project of yours.
– – References – – – –
[ 1 ] amuse.vice.com/en_us/article/vbwjam/brewdog-columbus-ohio