Entrepreneurs are doers, who recognize perfectionism as a foe, not a friend. Entrepreneurs can exist and thrive in enterprises big and small. I truly believe in both of these statements. I remind myself regularly, that “doing” is critical to moving forward; and doing enables learning. I remind myself of the hard-cold fact that if you never create something to market, you never produce revenue, which means you’ll never have a business, yet alone fulfill a vision of prosperity. In my experience, doing means you have struck the 4:1 ratio of creating something tangible to strategizing. That means 4 days doing, to 1 day thinking, calculating, and planning. To create you need to determine what materials you will use, procure them, test, learn, adapt, etc., etc. And importantly, doing is the antithesis of seeking perfection or judging something isn’t good enough for others to bear witness.
I want to share a few things that may help make it easier to do stuff regardless of the size of your enterprise or market opportunity.
Get clear on “who” your creation is for, who has a vested interest in its existence
Commit to engage this target to collaboratively define and create a version that has the right to be experienced, think Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Define and execute an approach to expose this MVP to more of your targets in a way that manages your upside, or downside, depending on the situation. This means in-market testing, piloting, on-site evaluation, etc.
There simply is no better way to shape a consumable product, service, software, durable equipment, experience, etc. than putting it in context. The number of development rounds is situation-dependent. But I guarantee you, the doing will inform you in ways you didn’t even think to inquire about because it enables you (for some, forces you) to walk in the shoes of the people who in the end, make your vision, and paycheck, a reality.