Just Get Started
There is a famous quote by Jim Collins: “Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.”
This is a very valid point and can apply to a lot of what we do. At the same time, taken to its logical extreme, it can also paralyse us. “I will not publish my blog post because it is merely good and not great. I will not launch the website because it is not perfect. I will not go public with my ideas because they are still half-baked.” This is the type of thinking that can cause more harm than good. At times, great can be the enemy of good. As with every good quote, context matters.
For a startup, it is important to get the product out there. Of course, it cannot be bad, but at the same time, one cannot wait for it to be great. When I launched IndiaWorld in March 1995, it was good. I had a certain pricing for a year’s subscription. I had many sections. I had a decent design. I had also delayed the launch a few weeks – working to make it better every day. One fine day, I decided – enough is enough. And just like that, I launched it.
In the next 3 weeks, I made many changes. I changed pricing twice, I tweaked the design. I changed which sections were free and which were available as part of the subscription. I improvised on the fly based on feedback I got. Unless I had launched, I would never have got the inputs – I was just playing mental games trying to figure out what the perfect (great) product should be.
I have done this many times. Once things are good enough, get started. I did this with my blog in April. I had waited many years to re-start. And then one day, I just started. I told myself, “I am writing for myself. If I keep thinking about what others want, I will never get started. Instead, if I think of my writing as being to help me clarify my own mental models, there is no reason for me to delay.” As I write on different topics, ideas become better. And then I can write more – a second series and a third.
The same is true of the Velvet Rope Marketing ideas. These have evolved over the past few months. I was very hesitant to do the first CMO presentation – I wanted the ideas to be perfect. And then, I said – let’s start, and we will improve as we go along. Because the feedback from others was more important than achieving perfection with my own thinking. And the presentation now is in its fifth revision and much better – but it would not have been had I not started.
So, if you have an idea or a new venture, just get started. Work on improving it. Don’t wait for the perfect idea – because there never will be one. The end goal is to achieve greatness, but the path starts with being merely good, and then working one step at a time to becoming better. When you look back a few months or a year later, you will see a huge body of work – which would never have happened had you not made the decision to begin the journey, however imperfect that start may be.
Will be continued soon.
