Have you ever had an idea for a product or service? If you’re like me you’ve probably had a million ideas; thousands were crap, hundreds were so-so, a few were great, but you’ve probably only succeeded at getting a few out into the world over the course of your entire career.
Making things is really, really hard. Much of the time the hard part isn’t making the thing but making the things to sell the thing. Or, making the thing work for everyone in every situation. Or, even harder, is making that thing affordable. Hardest of all? Making something simple.
A good example of this is an ice cream scoop. Check out the Bell-V Ice Cream Scoop on Kickstarter. Making the first prototype was fairly simple. It was a block of wood with a cup attached to it. That part was easy. The hard part is everything else that followed; refining the design, making it out of a material that can be mass produced, making it affordable. Oh, and then building the supply chain, manufacturing process, shipping, customer support… the list goes on and on. All to put out a better ice cream scoop.
This is why you should applaud when people make things. Because more than likely they did a lot more work than you realize to get it out into the world. More than likely they spent more money than you think they did. More than likely they spent more time than you think they did. More than likely they sacrificed a lot more than you think they did. More than likely they pulled their hair out, sweat blood and tears, and were much more scared than you ever thought they were.
The next time you see someone put something out into the world, applaud them for the effort.