What’s the #1 phrase that kills ideas and derails entrepreneurs ?
It’s not: “it can’t be done,” “that’s impossible” or even “give up!”
People rarely say those boneheaded phrases anymore. In fact – they’re almost motivating challenges for entrepreneurs.
No. The #1 phrase that kills innovation is:
“We’re already doing that”
It derails further discussion. Stops all progress in its tracks.
It sounds like:
- “we’re not going to help you because we’re already busy doing this ourselves – or,
- “we thought of it first, and don’t need you, dear #entrepreneur.”
Really, they are saying:
“we thought about this idea for a minute, along with a hundred other fleeting ideas, but never did anything.
Now that you’ve showed us how exciting the idea is, we might give it a try. The reality is we haven’t taken the first steps.”
“We’re already doing that” means:
- They’re probably not doing “that”, at all.
- The way you pitched the idea made it sound attractive & viable for the first time.
You just caused them to scramble and work on the idea. Likely it’ll be a rushed, disorganized effort to create a new product or service.
They’ll probably be your customer or partner one day.
Don’t let “we’re already doing that ” derail you.
It usually means you’re on the right track.