Michael Iva’s man­i­festo, “100 Ways to Kill a Con­cept: Why Most Ideas Get Shot Down”.

So, you’ve got an idea. A big idea. But will your idea take flight? Not if you let your con­cept be killed by all the usu­al excus­es you hear from your man­agers, your boss­es, your spouses—excuses moti­vat­ed by fear or pos­ses­sive­ness. In this wide-rang­ing man­i­festo, Iva offers you ways to per­suade some­one to embrace your idea, to not be swayed by neg­a­tive respons­es, and to uti­lize your cre­ativ­i­ty.

Here’s a list of cir­cum­stances that usu­al­ly fol­lows up once a con­cept is con­ceived:

1. The boss won’t go for that.
2. The lawyers won’t go for that.
3. The accoun­tants won’t go for that.
4. The client won’t go for that.
5. The sales­peo­ple won’t go for that.
6. The investors won’t go for that.
7. So and so won’t like it.
8. It’s not us.
9. It won’t fit into our sys­tem.
10. We’re not ready for that yet.
11. I don’t think it will work.
12. I don’t under­stand.
13. Do you under­stand?
14. Will any­one under­stand?
15. What will they think of next?
16. It’s polit­i­cal­ly incor­rect.
17. It’s too com­pli­cat­ed.
18. It’s too late for that now.
19. It’s too expen­sive.
20. We’ll lose mon­ey.

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