> And boy to the people making the decisions NOT want to hear that.

You are 100% correct. The way I've tried to manage that is to provide info while not appearing to be the naysayer by giving some options. It makes it seem like I'm on board with crazy-ass plan and just trying to find a way to make it successful, like this:

"Ok, there are a few ways we could handle this:

Option 1 is to do ABC first which will take X amount of time and you get some value soon, then come back and do DEF later

Option 2 is to do ABC+DEF at the same time but it's much tougher and slower"