Tell people the idea, then read their doubt carefully
Talking about an idea costs little and teaches a lot. The doubt it meets comes in two kinds, and only one of them should be ignored.
Openly share and talk to people about your idea. Use their lack of interest or doubt to fuel your motivation to make it happen.
Many first-time founders guard an idea as if it were the business. They ask friends to sign nondisclosure agreements, describe the product in vague terms and avoid showing it to anyone who might copy it. Investors mostly refuse to sign such agreements, and experienced founders rarely ask. The reason is practical: an idea is cheap to have and expensive to carry out, and the people most able to carry it out are usually busy with their own.
Todd Garland started BuySellAds in 2008, a marketplace where blog publishers could sell ad space directly to advertisers, and he built it without outside investment. A product like that depends on persuading two groups at once, and the only way to learn what either group wants is to talk to them. That is the first half of his line, and it is hard to argue with. Explaining an idea out loud exposes the gaps in it. Each conversation either sharpens the pitch or reveals a question the founder had not thought to ask.
The second half is where care is needed. Doubt comes in two kinds. One is doubt about the founder: friends who think the plan is too risky, relatives who would prefer a steady job, peers who do not believe someone like them can pull it off. That kind of doubt can be used as fuel, and many founders have used it that way. Proving someone wrong is a real motivator, if not a very durable one.
The other kind is lack of interest from the people the product is for. If publishers do not want to list their space and advertisers do not want to buy it, their indifference is not a challenge to rise to. It is the most useful information a founder will get, and turning it into motivation to push harder is a common way to spend two years building something nobody asked for.
The two kinds sound alike in conversation. A useful test is to ask who is doubting. A skeptical uncle knows little about whether advertisers want a new way to buy ads. A skeptical advertiser knows a great deal. Treating the first as fuel and the second as a signal to change the idea gets the benefit of the line without its risk.
There is also a limit to how long motivation drawn from other people’s doubt lasts. It tends to burn hot at the start and fade once the doubters stop paying attention, which they usually do. The motivation that carries a company through its third year tends to come from customers who want the product, which brings the argument back to talking to them.