People Will Probably Laugh at You Too

I was thinking about Richard Branson (one of my favorite storytellers) and Virgin Airlines.

You can probably picture the scene.

Over a quiet dinner and a few drinks early in 1984, Richard Branson announces his plans to a few close friends.

He explains that he is going to cream some of the profits from his successful Virgin Records business and use it to lease a second-hand Boeing 747. His intention is to start a commercial airline and take on mighty British Airways in the process.

Some would’ve thought it was a joke and actually laughed out loud.

Others, their forks suspended in mid-air, might have looked him dead in the eye to work out if he really was joking, or if he had finally gone mad.

How many times in his business career do you think that Richard Branson was laughed at?

From being the dyslexic teen editor of a magazine to his vision of galactic missions and changing the face of every industry from money to health care… I’m guessing quite a few.

People will probably laugh at you too.

They will laugh at your ideas both big and small.

Those devil’s advocates will challenge your vision of the world as it could be. They will tell you it can’t be done.

Just like they told Muhammad Yunus that the poor wouldn’t pay back their microloans. They will urge you to be careful.

People will call on you to be realistic and sensible. Just like them. They will urge you to wait for the ‘right time’. And maybe you will.

You might wait to work on the idea that simply can’t fail.

Why?

Because you don’t want to feel like you are six years old again. Because you can’t bear the thought of putting something imperfect out into the world.

Something that might fail.

That would-be failure you’re working on, like Virgin Airlines, will never become something that has a chance to succeed unless you get over the fear of having ideas that people will laugh at.

And begin having enough faith in them (and you) to put them to work.

I believe in you.