The best time to have started was yesterday. The second best time is today. Remember however that tomorrow, you will call today, ‘yesterday’. So you had better get a move on. We seem to have an aversion to starting. Many people ask is it too early, too late, is this the right time? Then we throw in the how’s. How do I invest, save, budget, start a business, scale up, hire, plan for retirement etc.? All these things are answered along the way. You only get better as you do them. You will never learn unless you actually start. Most problems are not the technical know-how. There are reasons we don’t actually do the things we want to do. Have you ever had an idea, did nothing about it and then three years later saw somebody else doing the same thing. Then you feel bad because it was your idea. This has happened so many times to so many people, I now believe we do not have ownership of ideas. We may be custodians of that idea for a period but if we don’t do anything, it can move on. Or you wanted to invest somewhere and held back. Later, you hear people talking about how much money they made. These are the consequences of not starting. A lot of the answers you are looking for today is in starting. So why don’t you just go ahead and do it!
We fear failure too much. At some point in our lives, we learnt that fear is bad. Maybe it’s the way in school there was a lot of shame when you came last on the test. However, in the real world, going to school means failing every now and then. When we avoid failure we don’t learn essential lessons we need to move on. It’s better to start with what you have so that you can fail fast, fail quickly and preferably fail cheaply. We would prefer to have the perfect scenario laid out, all the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed so that we make a move. We do copious amounts of research and want to have the perfect plan. Many businesses have not started because people are still writing business plans. Plans that will never actually work because practical business plans are actually supposed to be developed as you execute. The rest are just nice things to put on paper. Many people also say they first need capital. You had better try and fail with the resources you have rather than spend huge amounts of money you raised for a theoretical business. Either way, ‘time is more valuable than the money’. The journey develops the plan. It’s not the other way round.
We also don’t start because of being overly concerned with what others think. Somewhere in our socialization, we learnt that the more people approve of something the better it is. Fewer people approve of it the worse it is. Well, many people approve of taking shortcuts through bribery but it doesn’t make it right. That hunch or idea was given to you. When you got it, it wasn’t given to thirty other people. Why are you then listening to them? There are a few people however who may have valuable input for you and usually, they are giving you different insight (from experience and not ignorant chatter) or pointing out things that you should consider, that’s important to listen to. Just be wary of people who are quick to tell you it will never work. You are not doing this for people but for yourself. This life journey is yours.
We love our comfort zones. Sometimes we have already started something and then we get stuck there. For example, we have run our businesses a certain way and that may have worked for a while. But now we may need to innovate, get fresh ideas, use technology etc. But we don’t start doing things differently because the old way is very comfortable. Don’t get too used to the way things are that you can’t see the way things should or can be. Every season is a chance to look at your life, finances, career, business as the blank sheet of paper and dream again or rewrite the script.
Whatever you have been thinking about just start. Act – do the next best step that is in front of you. Take the lessons both the good and the bad and then build on that.
Waceke runs a course on Entrepreneurship. Get in touch with her on waceken@centonomy.com|Facebook/WacekeNduati| Twitter@cekenduati