Understanding stubborn people.

I once pitched an idea to the CTO of a large telco and he rejected it very quickly as a terrible option.

He paused for a moment and then said: "But, my wife bought me a shirt the other day that I said was horrible and I would never wear it. But the next day I put it on and I looked good. So why don't you leave this idea with me."

We tried the idea the following week and it worked well.

Sometimes, a stubborn rejection of an idea rises at the tail end of a long process of synthesis and thesis development, especially from people who are operating in highly complex environments. CEOs of startups are some of the most 'stubborn' people I know because of this.

When an idea is tried against a thesis and it doesn't fit well, it might be rejected quickly because this mental model is used to decide what to do and not do. Companies can't do everything.

But the best leaders don't stop synthesising inputs. The idea will move through their mental model in time, and maybe unlock a new compartment of value.

I've learned to not push to hard and to let an idea sit. We can't force 'stubborn' people to change their mind on the spot. We need to give ideas time to flow through the bigger picture.

And it is also possible that we are wrong - and it really is a terrible idea.

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I'm a Partner at Main Sequence, a VC purpose-built to create global companies from scientific ideas with the inventors who imagine them. I build-out-loud here: https://philmorle.substack.com

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