Momentum is the key force you want when you are starting out. To get it and keep it, you can’t worry about making something perfect before you send it to the world. You can’t shut yourself down before you give yourself a chance - and a chance means sending something out in the world and experimenting.
So in your early days see your product as a series of experiments. Your goal is to try new things fast, and iterate from there.
A lot of advice is about finding a target audience. And you do want one. But you might not have a clear one in mind to start. That’s ok. Still start. Get clarity through action, not thinking about it.
Part of this is about the courage to get out into the world.
Courage is not something that you have or you don’t. Rather, courage comes from taking brave action. Don’t wait until the mood is right; don’t wait until the bravery is there; don’t wait until everything is aligned. Just start.
If you don’t, you risk building up fear of what could happen and stopping yourself before you give yourself the chance you need.
If you do, you give yourself the gift of momentum.
Resources about this idea:
Here are examples from the Founder Toolkit of companies that were really not perfect, but that became successful anyway:
How to Create Luck from Y Combinator: Specific stories of teams “creating luck” by going through different ideas fast:
My Top 10 Tips for Aspiring YouTubers from Ali Abdaal.
Ali has over 2 million subscribers on YouTube. In this video, he gives thoughtful, specific advice for starting a Youtube channel. We include it here not to tell you to start a Youtube channel. Rather, the mindset that Ali lays out applies well to starting a company too.
In particular, check out this 60 second segment where he talks about the importance of creating at least 50 videos before even thinking about views or subscribers–and the first big goal is to get to 50 videos with whatever equipment and whatever you’ve got.
Use this as inspiration for your company–have a concrete goal of having a product in the world as that key goal, without worrying about all the other stuff like how fancy it is, how many people might love it. Just start:
Magic Lessons, Episode 202 with Elizabeth Gilbert and guest Brandon Stanton.
Here Elizabeth and Brandon talk about building courage as a skill.
Elizabeth Gilbert wrote the international blockbuster Eat, Pray, Love, and several other successful books. She also started a podcast called Magic Lessons where she investigates the creative process. In this episode, she invites Brandon Stanton, the creator of Humans of New York, where he started venturing onto the streets of New York City, asking people about their stories and taking their picture, and then the project grew from there.
Start at minute 28 to hear the discussion about building courage through action: