For Valentine's Day, Love Your Spouse or Partner, Not Your ‘Big Idea’

Now that the Super Bowl is over, we can all start thinking about Valentine's Day.

I can still remember the Valentine's Day card I got from my first childhood sweetheart in elementary school. She surreptitiously passed it to me in Mrs. Adler's English class. I hid it in my backpack, and opened it before going to bed that night. Of course, we lost contact only to find out by some strange quirk of fate that we both lived in the same city many, many years later.

Don't do the same thing with your idea. After all, value is user defined and what you think really doesn't matter. Your goal is to keep answering why you should kill the relationship, rather than rationalizing why it should see the light of day. Confirmation bias can take you to strange and unwanted places, and, most will break your heart.

There are many ways how not to fall in love with your ideas. If you follow them, then maybe you won't fall prey to the single biggest reason businesses fail, i.e. because there were not enough customers who wanted to buy the product or service and those fickle souls will find at least 50 ways to leave their lovers.

This Valentines Day, do something nice for your partner or spouse and tell them you love them. Keep your ideas out of the relationship.