My great ideas

Not all of my ideas are great, but when you really get down to it, most of them are. Yet every year, dozens, maybe hundreds of people shoot down my great ideas because these so-called "other people" don't think my ideas are as great as I do.

I don't know how to keep moving after that. I'm better than I used to be -- I'm not sullen when someone shoots down my great ideas any more. But I don't know how to keep moving, how to create and participate after that happens.

This is not hypothetical for someone who ostensibly does creative work for a living. You must be able to route around blocks with minimal loss of velocity, and I'm craptastic at that. Someone tells me my idea isn't great (quite often the person who has the ability to green-light the thing) and I come to a juddering halt.

Creative work is frequently collaborative, never moreso than when you're using someone else's money. It is important to know how to do this. And yet. And yet and yet and yet.

Part of the problem is that most people are lousy collaborators -- including me. Still, I have to figure out how to work even around that block, the block of your co-creators fighting against you. I had a creative director canvas me for ideas, ignore them, and then criticize me for not contribuing enough. I've had directors encourage me to use my own judgment, and then methodically shoot down every word I wrote, telling me to copy and paste what I was given. Recently, outside of a professional environment, every good idea I offered on a project was accepted, and then after discussion, rejected. FRUSTRATING. However, you have to keep contributing when that happens.

More to the point, I have to keep contributing when that happens. Some days I want to punch faces instead. Most of the time, I shut down. This might be a worse choice than face punching. I like to think I'm being a team plsyer by acquiescing, but staying in the fight (or starting one) might be a better option sometimes.

This happened to me last week. I was feeling off kilter anyway, so I yelled. Wrote a frank email and bitched to a couple of people. It didn't keep my ideas afloat; they still went unused, and I created conflict that I would rather have done without. But I've decided being less accomodating about axeing my ideas was a good idea. Maybe even a great idea.