On several occasions I have noticed that an idea that was rejected years earlier is readily accepted today. It prompted me to think “If we had only implemented it before we would have been ahead of the curve.” In this article we will look at a couple of criteria that influence an idea’s success and how can we determine the right time to push to implement it.
Factors influencing the success of an idea
The success of an idea depends on two criteria:
- It has to be good.
- The environment has to be right for it to thrive.
In the long run, good ideas stand the test of time. But it is difficult to predict if an idea will survive in the long run. Even if it is good, there is no guarantee that it will be accepted. There are a litany of cases where good ideas were rejected due to prevailing norms only to resurface and thrive when the environment was more conducive to their implementation. Conversely, several ideas were considered good initially failed miserably. So the challenge is to figure out if and when the two criteria are met.
The right time to push an idea
It is difficult to determine the right time to push an idea. But there a few things that can help with the determination:
Determining if an idea is good
How does one know if an idea is good at the outset? Well, we don’t. It has to be tested first which can be accomplished in a number of ways.
- First, truthfully answer the following question, “Am I passionate about my idea?” If you do not believe in it, no one else will.
- Research if others have had the same idea. If it is backed by research is a good indicator of it’s validity.