Just Start
Originally published at www.James-Strocel.com. Please leave any comments there.
At times running a business can feel like you’re wrestling an octopus. You know all the book-keeping, HR, Marketing, Insurance, production and taxes that the captains of industry get other people to do for them? For now, all those duties fall to you, sunshine. Which job will you do first? How will you do them? Will you do it right? God help you if you don’t do it right! 70% of businesses fail within their first year, you know!
I haven’t been in the entrepreneur game long, but I find there’s one little strategy that gets me going in the morning: I start.
Every morning, I open my project management software, my e-mail, and a text editor, and I start. Bad work, the kind you’ll kick yourself later for doing is infinitely better than no work done at all. So what if it’s not the best balance sheet/business card/website/elevator pitch in the entire world? As of right now, you may be the only person on this enterprise, and therefore you’re the best you’ve got. You can get help if you’re really stuck, but help might not know what you want if you don’t pick up that keyboard and start. So if you’re an entrepreneur, staring a blank laptop, you will be much better off if you gather the trappings of what you think you’re supposed to do. Whether it’s a book for research, your schedule for this week, or your bank account spreadsheet, your purpose will become that much clearer if you Just. Start.