your idea died before the meeting

I once walked into a meeting completely prepared to pitch an idea I'd been working on for weeks. I had the numbers and an answer ready for every question I thought someone might ask. Then one person raised a concern I hadn't prepared for, another agreed with her, and the room moved on to the next agenda item while I was still standing at the front. I remember thinking, Wait... that's it? What I found out later was that the meeting wasn't really where the decision happened. The two of them had...