Success Principle #1 - Get Started!
August 23, 2006
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Well the plan was to get everything all polished up before launching this ship. But then in the shower this morning I had a thought. (And you probably should know that I do some of my best thinking in the shower for some reason.)
The thought was this: One of the first things you have to do if you are going to realize success is simply get started. Get into action.
My natural bent is to get everything organized and spend a lot of time figuring out all the gritty little details. I want to plan to the N-th degree. Sometimes I even suffer from analysis-paralysis. (”Say it isn’t so, Chris!”)
I can’t tell you how many great ideas I’ve had over the years that have been completely wasted energy. They never got enough momentum to actually launch and achieve escape velocity. Because they were never even started.
Successful people don’t have to have every single detail worked completely out before they get into action. Do you for a moment believe Bill Gates understood exactly how he was going to deliver his product to the Chinese market before he launched Microsoft? I seriously doubt it!
Check out what Jeff Cannon has to say on the subject from his book, Leadership Lessons of the Navy SEALS
At some point, you have to turn off the research and go. Otherwise, the plan that you’ll be working on will be written by the competition. Sure, it’s a bit of a risk: but everything is. Sure, the competition can’t iron out every wrinkle, but they know that the first to market usually wins. they know that there’s going to be a learning curve, and they’re willing to invest in it. How many software companies wait until their programs are bug-free before entering the market? Not many. Ever wonder why there are patches, fixes, and multiple versions?
Make the pitch. Grab the contract. Then have the software writers work like mad to actually develop the product in time.
Don’t wait for a sure thing. It will never come. Life is not like that. Business is not like that. The SEALs aren’t like that. Not only will a sure thing never come, but if you wait for the perfect moment, chances are you’ll be forced to react and your plan of action will be dictated by your competition. And there is nothing worse than that.
So. In the spirit of not waiting for the perfect moment, I’m going ahead and launching this blog way before I have it all worked out. We are simply getting into action. Because of that you are going to see lots of changes as I get things going on the fly.
It will be good for me and hopefully the process will be interesting for you too.
Enjoy!
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Tags: Principles, Action
Chris,
Awesome job man!!
You’re killing me (in a good way) with this.
You are an inspiration.
David, your comment got eaten up by the new blog “moderation”. Sorry about that.
Thanks for the encouragement! You’re no slouch yourself!
I found you via Joe’s Working at Home… I love what you’ve done here so far. Beautiful presentation and great content; that’s all a blog ever really needs. And you are right on about jumping in; I for one am glad you did.
Thanks, Lyman. Joe’s got a good thing going over there. And I see you have your hands full too! It is amazing to me how many opportunities are out there.
It is pretty amazing… and one of the problems with jumping into too many things at once!
I appreciate what you mean, Lyman. The moment I committed to starting this here a bunch of other things decided to happen to take up my time and test that commitment level to see if I was serious about it.
Hello Chris! Wow….this is awesome! I’m so glad to see you following your passion and it comes across in every word! Thank you for your insights as they are seemingly perfectly timed. GOD is great that way! I KNOW you will attract GREAT people and success into your life Chris.
Best,
Celeste Goodhue
Hey Celeste! Thanks for the encouragement. I’m just passing on whatever light has already shone on me. Hopefully I’ll reflect it well.
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