I just had a realization that I’m a professional dream crusher. Being in software consulting, I hear multiple pitches every single week for all sorts of different software. While it’s not necessarily my job to tell people what’s good and bad, I feel it’s my responsibility to at least give them all of the information I can.

In my many years of doing this, I have learned a bit about what works and what doesn’t and I have gotten pretty good at saying no to projects that I don’t believe in. This often means crushing the dreams of someone who has a product idea that keeps them up at night. I always try to be encouraging and present them with some solution, however often times after having a discussion with me, folks will not go forward with their product development.

I often wrestle with this and wonder if it’s my role to help protect these folks by sharing my thoughts or adopt a philosophy of “the money is green either way” and accept their project. I’d be curious if others had this same challenge.