4 ways to get through the “dark nights of the innovator”
“People love to talk about how important failure is. What they don’t always tell you is that FAILURE SUCKS!” This was from a conversation with a very successful CEO. For many years he worked through what my friend Dr. Jack Matson calls the “dark nights of the innovator”, when you wonder whether it’s all going to go smash, whether you can make payroll, and whether you can even eke out a living from your work? Is it really worth it? He was an inch away from bankruptcy and losing his home and car. But he stuck it out, and after about 20 years, he became an “overnight success”.
You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to experience this! You might be the head of a large project, a PhD student (or other), a parent, or a politician. How to overcome those dark nights? Especially perhaps after an early upward burst, when things go well -- it can make a subsequent descent even more discouraging! Here are three steps to overcoming those dark nights.
1. Recognition of dark nights. After a while -- and this might take 0.5 to 3 years -- you start to see that it’s hard to find customers for your idea, or hard to get someone to do something you want. Successes are hard to find in the dark, and as your belly aches and your family grows thinner, you start to think, “Is this worth it?” You are where a million innovators have been before. This is probably NOT the time to stop, unless you see a firm barrier, such as, “Oh, that violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics.” I’m sorry to say that the dark nights can sometimes last years. But perhaps the recognition that others have been there before is enough to sustain you for a time. The good news is that you’re not “out” until you give up. The bad news is that you can start to wonder whether you’re like Tolkien’s Nazgûl, neither living nor dead.
2. KMF! A good friend of mine Dr. Kathryn Jablokow has a saying which she’s said to me (and herself) so often: Keep moving forward (KMF). Try a new course. Reach out to experts and buy them lunch as you ask questions. Talk with new potential customers or mentors. Run new experiments. “If you keep doing what you did, you’ll keep getting what you got.” You’re looking for that spark that will get you moving again. Keep moving forward and try something new.
3. Explosion. This is one that is sometimes missed. Don’t fail to prepare for the explosion that can result when you find the spark. If your business of project took off 10x or more where it is now, could you handle it? You might want to spend a little time preparing for this event -- even if you’re still in a hole -- because if you keep running experiments and adapting on a viable idea, you’re likely to find your way out of the energy minimum you’re in and take off.
4. Quitting. There is a time to quit, as Seth Godin talks about in his thin but super book, “The Dip”. If you look ahead, beyond all the work and time and money and effort required, and say to yourself, “Why am I fighting for THAT? I don’t really even want that!” This is a potential time to quit. The original vision is no longer appealing.
Image from Brenda Clarke from Blaxland, Australia.
