>>>and stated it as a scheme of a number of friends, who had requested me to go about and propose it to such as they thought lovers of reading
Wow. That's right out of the later playbook of Edward Bernays. Set up a fictional committee that "endorses" something in order to enhance its marketing.
I think the point is less about social proof here and more about understanding that a good portion of rejection from investors and prospects could simply be the way you are pitching elevates you above their level, and their natural ego -based response will be to reject it, find holes in it, etc...
If you want to succeed at pitching investors or finding customers, it would do you well to check your vanity at the door, focus less on what you created and more on what it will do for them.
A simple adaptation would be approaching your prospects saying, "Hey I came across this interesting product and thought you would be interested in it." No need to lie, just ommit your involvement.
Here, Elizabeth Gilbert is talking about an older take on genius. That genius is not any one property of a person, but rather, something that appears to the one who is prepared. It makes sense to me, considering that an innovation often occurs to a more than one people who don't have much connection with each other. The time was simply right.
Saying, "I have a genius (for the moment)" rather than "I am a genius" also takes off a lot of pressure to continually prove you are a genius. That kind of hidden agenda (Jungian shadow) covertly demands that other people sees you as the originator. It comes down to ... do you want to see this product come out into the world, or do you want glory?
In other words, there isn't a need to lie, or even omitting your involvement. "Hey I came across this interesting product" is true, not simply evasive -- the genius was gifted to you; and if you are not prepared to share it, then it will find someone else more suitable.
Besides. How can you expect a startup to mature into a business model that runs itself if you can't let go of demanding credit? If it is about the product -- regardless of credit -- then the whole team is involved -- engineers, designers, investors and customers.
Thanks for sharing this bit from Ben Franklin. Earlier this morning, I had sent out a snarky email. I was overtly saying I wanted to pass on some ideas, yet I was demanding credit in the subtext. This was not impeccable, and probably came across as creepy. Now I know :-)
Oh, and "a good portion of rejection from investors and prospects could simply be the way you are pitching elevates you above their level, and their natural ego"
A way to refine that is to say, when you pitch to elevate you above your level, you are challenging the investor or prospect and probably leaking out contempt. The investor or prospect is likely to reject your pitch to answer that challenge.
If there are no challenge, then this kind of byplay does not distract from the epic awesomeness of the idea.
"... focus less on what you created and more on what it will do for them." <-- Ha! That deepens the understanding of "Customer Development." If you're caught up with the Jungian shadows to demand credit, then you won't really try to understand user benefit or user needs since you put yourself first ahead of the customer. Cool.
Wow. That's right out of the later playbook of Edward Bernays. Set up a fictional committee that "endorses" something in order to enhance its marketing.