People Love You More Than Your Idea

There's a phenomenon we all experience when we reveal our new idea or project with the world.

The first few days, our metrics soar ever-upward. Views, listens, downloads, comments, sales... Pick your metric, they all project 400% annual growth. Drunk on these metrics, we create more, think deeper, reinvest, and anticipate the hockey stick growth our initial feedback indicates.

Then the plummet happens.

Maybe it's a few weeks, maybe a few months, but inevitably us creators and entrepreneurial spirits all experience the same freefall. Every meticulous plan, every painstaking marketing creation, every unique branding strategy - it all yields a negative return.

Your readers stop reading. Your listeners stop listening. Your followers stop following. And the wonderful soundtrack of store bells jingling fall into a deadening silence.

What happened?

If I was an academic, I'd say something like "recent studies suggest..." or "according to new findings from the institute of..." or my personal favorite "you're experiencing what we call..."

But I'm not an academic. I'm just a guy with ideas who likes to help other people make their ideas a reality. And I can tell you that what you're feeling is the result of people who love you more than your idea.

There's a good chance I'm one of those people who was so proud of you creating a podcast, an inspirational newsletter, an ebook, or a unique personal brand that I shared your initial creations with the world! I celebrated you, showered you with praise, and bragged about you to my friends. Yet eventually, probably around episode 3 or week 4, I rapidly disengaged.

I'm one small example of most people in your life. It's not that we don't love your creations, it's that we love YOU more. Our initial wave of support was as inflating as it was fleeting.

You're not alone.

I created this newsletter a year ago, surpassing 1,900 subscribers in the first month. After dropping as low as 1,500 throughout the year, I'm now sitting at 1,914. It wasn't a reduction in quality, passion, or media investment that caused this one-year marathon to the starting line. It was a function of having too many people who loved me more than the idea.

I write this to remind the aspiring creators kicking-off 2024 fueled on a tank of "I'm going to show the world" - fortunately or unfortunately, too many people love you.

But just know that in month 3 when you see that bar graph dip to obscurity, THAT'S the moment you know "ahh, this is where everyone else gives up." That's your time to keep moving - experiment, create and recreate, invest and reinvest, brand and rebrand. Don't give up.

Let those supporters who comprised those first two skyscraper bars in your bar graph know that their support was not in vein.

You may have a several-year journey ahead of you, but where your idea succeeds and others' fail is at that moment when you realize your people love you more than your idea.

Others infer this phenomenon to mean, "no one loves my idea".

You'll infer this phenomenon to mean "I am loved by too many people to let this idea die and their initial support die with it."

About the Author

Sean is the author of That Was Awkward: 7 Secrets of an Awkward Networker and the founder of Awkward Networker, a professional development website focused on encouraging and mentoring networkers by providing his tips and techniques to avoid the natural awkwardness of networking. Sean created Awkward Networker as a platform to teach others the fast track to networking and professional success.