A Great Idea Should Turn Up the Heat

There is an old saying that traces its origin to the days when there was a blacksmith shop on every dusty main street. It implores us to, “Strike while the iron is hot!” The meaning used to be clear. Blacksmiths heat iron and steel to a glowing red to make the metals malleable, so they can be struck with a hammer and formed into horseshoes, wagon wheels and swords. If a blacksmith were to wait until the metal had cooled, it would crack or break when it was hit. It’s a relatively small window of opportunity in which to work. So we should all strike while the iron is hot, meaning take advantage of an opportunity as soon as it presents itself. If we wait, it will be gone.

It’s a great old saying and has probably inspired scores of people throughout the ages, from would-be suitors to modern day entrepreneurs. I just don’t think it’s true anymore. Because I believe there is no window of opportunity. Calling it a window suggests that the time for an opportunity is either open or shut, here or gone. That just isn’t the way things are today.

Not that long ago, introducing a new product or idea took time. You had to produce something, test it, then test the market for it, and invest in some form of advertising, whether it was radio, television, billboards or magazines, in order to introduce it to the world. Not today. I can tweet something to the world in two seconds. I can post it to Facebook or even create its own Facebook page. I can make a video on my phone and put it on YouTube and a minute later find an audience. It’s easy to try something new today. Too easy.

Don’t agree? Just watch an episode of Shark Tank on ABC sometime. It’s an hour filled with people whose ideas are either phenomenal or utterly ridiculous. Either way, every single one has already been produced. It has been marketed, sold and hit a brick wall. That’s why these entrepreneurs go on the show. They face a row of rich investors and beg for help. They’re out of capital, can’t tap into the greater marketplace and don’t know where to turn.

A very few lucky ones lure a Shark to invest in them. The rest leave more discouraged than ever. They’ve been rejected on national television. Even more difficult to find an investor now. Or, worse, someone who watched the show may steal their idea. They thought they had struck while the iron was hot. But it’s cold. For everyone. And it’s never going to be hot again.

When everyone has an opportunity it’s too easy for everyone to try. Whether or not they have a good idea. And because it’s so easy, because there are so few filters to glean the great ideas from the chaff, no matter how good your idea and your product are, the odds are more likely that people will overlook your message.

Back in the days when someone needed a blacksmith, they simply went to the nearest town. And they didn’t need to search the signs atop the buildings to find one. All they had to do was listen. Once they heard the familiar clang, clang, clang of a hammer on hot metal, they knew precisely where to go.

Want your message to be heard today? Find your sound and make people listen for it.

Then make some heat.