Pay the Price
Momentum beats purity.
A framework from The Reinventor’s Mindset™ by Ashton Jones
What is Pay the Price?
This is the fifth framework inside The Reinventor’s Mindset. It recognises that ideas don’t fail because they’re bad. They fail because their creator protects them too tightly.
When others put their fingerprints on your idea, it changes. It degrades. It becomes messier than the pristine version in your head. But it moves. And movement is what matters.
A 70% version with five owners beats a 100% version with one. That’s the Fingerprint Principle.
The Insight
Let others put their fingerprints on your idea. Shared ownership creates momentum; intellectual purity creates resistance.
The Fingerprint Principle
A 70% version with five owners beats a 100% version with one. The question isn’t whether others will change your idea. They will. The question is whether you’d rather have a pure idea that never moves or a messy one with momentum.
The Question
“Whose ownership are you resisting?”
Why does shared ownership matter more than intellectual purity?
Because nobody fights for an idea they didn’t help shape. Perfection isolates. Shared ownership creates emotional buy-in, and emotional buy-in creates momentum.
The price of collaboration is always some degradation of the original concept. The price of purity is always stalling. You choose.
How do you apply Pay the Price?
Identify one idea you’ve been protecting. Ask yourself whose fingerprint would create momentum. Then invite them in - and accept the compromise that follows.
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FAQ
01.
Doesn’t letting others change your idea dilute it?
Yes. That’s the price. The question is whether you’d rather have a pure idea that never moves or a messy one with momentum. Shared ownership has consistently outperformed intellectual purity.
02.
How do you know when you’ve compromised too much?
When the core intent disappears. The Fingerprint Principle doesn’t mean surrendering the purpose of the idea. It means being flexible on execution while holding firm on direction. If the “why” changes, you’ve gone too far. If only the “how” changes, you’re probably in the
right place.
Ashton Jones
Transformation is a learnable skill, not a personality trait. I build new things inside systems designed to stay the same – and I teach others to do the same.
Copyright: © 2026 Ashton Jones. All rights reserved.
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