In the grand scheme of things though - I don't think most entrepreneurs are doing anything new. Anecdotally I failed on 2 new-idea companies and had 2 successfu

In the grand scheme of things though - I don't think most entrepreneurs are doing anything new. Anecdotally I failed on 2 new-idea companies and had 2 successful ones with very little new and I have a third on the way. Most businesses grow by stealing market share; not creating new categories. I agree that some need to be steadfast with their idea and vision but that seems to be an exception. I will say that doubters are everywhere and you do have to be able to persevere. My own wife was one of them with one of my companies. She'd say why are you spending so much time on that business when it doesn't make any money? I also met with an industry expert at the beginning and they told me not to bother; that there's already an 800 lb gorilla in the space and the market doesn't really need another entrant. Needless to say I bootstrapped it to 40k MRR and that gorilla offered to buy my company and I told them no. Many times the doubt is not about your idea; people are just scared of any existing competition. They think - oh there are other companies doing that. Non-entrepreneurs seem to get more jazzed about new ideas that aren't being done and they get completely disappointed and paralyzed when they find out their idea isn't new and someone is already doing it. To the point they won't even see how they are doing it and see if they can do it better. I get jazzed when I see companies making a lot of money in a niche but not doing it well. For many people, maintaining the ego on your idea/vision results in second mortgages on their house, high credit card debt, a lot of time away from family, and not knowing when to hang it up or change course. Separately - taking the ego out of ideas is definitely a good thing when building a company with one or more partners.