How To Cope With Ideas That Never Materialize

Today was supposed to be a big day! I was going to unveil a project I have been quietly working on for the past 6 months. But today is an awful, no good, very bad day. Late last night I discovered the project (THE ENTIRE IDEA) I had been working on had been stolen 2 months ago! And just like that, in that single moment, all my excitement, all my hope, all my creativity, all my hard work, all my heart was crushed. Now I'm left feeling completely unmotivated. Just blah.

Ideas are relatively worthless without need, passion, opportunity, execution, team work, and follow-through. That is exactly why I'm feeling relatively worthless right now.

I know what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to pick myself up, brush that dirt off my shoulder like a pimp and push forward. But instead I keep lying here, face down in the dirt. And I keep grinding that dirt between my teeth unable to decide if I'm more pissed off or sad about the whole thing. Self-pity is a waste of time and energy. So I refuse to waste anymore time or energy than the 6 months I already have.

While it's not possible they actually "stole" the idea because I hadn't told a single soul about my project, sometimes great minds just think alike and they beat you to the finish line. At this point, me competing would look unoriginal. I would be seen as the copycat. That's not sexy.

I always refer to any of my entrepreneurial endeavors as "my baby" and this feels like my baby was ripped from my arms! So today on Launch Day, June 1st, I'm left with a completely blank slate. I have to start all over again and I'm not sure I really want to anymore. Because birth is long and painful.

How do you reignite passion? How do you deal when you've invested so much of yourself and see zero return? How do you cope with ideas that never materialize?

And how do I even begin to accept the fact that lack of perseverance wasn't ever my problem. That simply a roadblock went up preventing me to persevere further. To me, a roadblock isn't an acceptable excuse for failing.