I just talked to a friend of mine who has a great idea for a business, how things were going. He said he isn’t ready to launch it yet. It’s always something. Not enough money. Not enough time. The idea isn’t fleshed out yet. Yada yada.
He told me about this great idea about 5 or 6 years ago. In fact, he has dozens of really great ideas. Not one of them has ever been done. Not one of them has even been started. I just find it baffling because as soon as I get an idea in my mind I just haul off and do it, prepared or not. I call this Version 1.0. Software companies do this all the time. They get something out there and work out the bugs along the way.
‘Cause here’s the thing… you will never, ever be completely prepared. Even companies that have millions of dollars and do tons of marketing research can still have issues.
I’m sure some people will disagree with me, but I think you should get an idea as good as it can be and then run with it. I would caution against spending too much on it initially though. My first version of swiggies were pretty awful. They were made of a bulky plastic and had a bulky terry cloth band that didn’t stay on the wrist very well and was incredibly hard to thread through the bottle. I bought some off the shelf packaging and had to seal it together with a glue gun.
I realized after I got them out that the bands needed to be updated. I found a material that was used in the medical industry which was much thinner, more durable, and stretched. It was perfect. You could even wear the swiggies for kick boxing.
The product was on the market and getting a better response. But people wanted them in different colors. So I made them in red, white and blue. Then I realized that the adult bottles were too big for kids. So I made them in a smaller size.
These are all things that I discovered after version 1.0 was already on the market. If I had waited until everything was absolutely perfect I might not have started at all. Like my friend, who is still waiting.
This week I started a new project. A great idea for a business. I had no idea exactly how I was going to do it. I decided that the longer I waited, the more I might talk myself out of it. It’s a year long project, which would take me far outside of my comfort zone. I would be doing something that I have never done before and would uproot my whole life for about a year.
I simply picked up the phone and started making some calls. I had no idea what I was going to say. I just spoke from the heart. And it worked. Not one person turned me down. But that’s not to say I didn’t make some big mistakes. Just as I was patting myself on the back I noticed that I had gotten the wrong information. That put a little bit of doubt and panic in me. What if I couldn’t pull it off? What if I bit off more than I could chew? What if I couldn’t meet the deadline?
I could still back out. I haven’t completely jumped off the cliff yet. I could still stay on the safe ground and not jump. But I would be missing out on a wonderful adventure. But if I stayed I wouldn’t be taking any risks. But the timing is perfect. I might not get another chance. I wondered if this is what other people go through.
I’m quite sure that most people don’t like to take such big risks, if any at all. It’s scary. But if you don’t do it you will probably regret it on your death bed. And so would I. Okay, now’s the time to put the blinders on and just go for it. I’ll keep telling myself that it’s an adventure. Yeah, that’s it. It’s version 1.0.