Everywhere I go in the world to speak or advise companies, I hear the same complaint: “No one listens to my ideas.” I hear it from young professionals trying to launch their careers, mid-career managers navigating internal politics, and even senior leaders struggling to steer their organizations in a new direction.

We like to believe that good ideas rise to the top, that if something is smart or right, people will naturally get behind it. But history shows that’s not true. From antiseptics and cancer immunotherapy to Chester Carlson’s Xerox machine, even the most breakthrough ideas faced fierce resistance. Countless others never saw the light of day.

As the computing pioneer Howard Aiken put it, “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram

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