I often find founders wrestling with a question at the heart of her/his idea. “How do I describe what does not exist?”
I love founders who wrestle with the question. I see them as truth seekers looking to validate their great idea. I often remind each that this is not a new question or challenge. Philosophers and dreamers have wrestled with this since anyone started to listen.
As rhetorical as the question is, there are ways to share your insights with each listener.
Tell me the story of what your good ideas feels like when it is embraced and used. My interest is in hearing about the emotions, ways the idea touches my senses, and any external details you can imagine. Take the model of the psalmist words, “It’s like costly anointing oil flowing down head and beard, flowing down Aaron’s beard, flowing down the collar of his priestly robes,” (Psalm 133.2) and run with it! Take me to the spot where I am experiencing the idea. Describe my emotions. Share the details of touch, sight, and taste. Take me to my heart.
Tell me the story of the world around me when others can take advantage of your idea. How does your idea touch my community? Is it the same in others? Does the world as we know it shift, and if so in what way? This story speaks to the way one’s idea works in the lives of people I can identify with. It talks to adoption and change. It often includes a link to the future as it builds with time.
What signs should I look for as I anticipate the birth and launch of your idea? Are you signaling the market, or will it come as a complete surprise? Will anything happen between now and then? Tell me about the lead up, ideally what the preparation will lead to, and how you anticipate people reacting.
It seems impossible, yet Easter is here. Divinity had a plan – complex yet simple, risky but guaranteed, and, by all accounts, unique and impossible. A Founder’s gift.
