It is up to you to explain the future in terms that those living in the past and present can follow.

I have to admit that when I was younger, whenever older executives didn’t see my vision, I would always blame them because they didn’t “get it.” This was a time when most senior executives in Hollywood still dictated their emails to their assistants and few of them had computers on their desks or in their homes. Now that I am on the wrong side of forty, I realize the problem I faced back then wasn’t senior management’s not getting it, but rather but my inability to communicate my vision in a context that they could comprehend. For all disruptors, this is the most important lesson that anyone can learn. It is not incumbent on the world to conform to your vision of change. It is up to you to explain the future in terms that those living in the past and present can follow. If you can’t overcome this fundamental communication challenge, you will never raise your capital, assemble your team, or build your customer base. An average idea enthusiastically embraced will go further than a genius idea that no one gets.

Jay Samit, Disrupt You

h/t Ian Derrington