When it comes to startups, nothing is more powerful than thinking small.
When it comes to startups, nothing is more powerful than thinking small. Small steps. Small goals. Small wins. Small is easy. Small is achievable. BIG is made up of lots of smalls.
If you ever find yourself thinking big, try to reign in your big vision for now, focus only on your next small achievable goal. After you achieve it, repeat that process.
You can still hold onto your big vision, but rather than focus on it, just use it as your distant north star.
Think Small, Act Big.
An old sales manager told me this around 10 years ago. He was sacked two weeks later.
His words live on!
Great post Justin. Nugget looks great and is something we, Budibase, would love to help with in the future.
👍
Couldn't agree with this more, Justin.
When I was 19 I through-hiked the Appalachian Trail - a 2,175 mile wilderness footpath that stretches from Georgia to Maine. On day 1, I hit the trail motivated and excited for the adventure. But, an hour into my hike, alone in the Georgia mountains, the temperature dropping quickly and light fading, it felt impossible that I'd ever make it to Maine. I began crying and hiking faster, as if I could just hike fast enough, I might make it there before dark.
Needless to say, I only made it a few additional miles before dark set in, the temperature dropped into the 30s, and it began icing heavily. After a sleepless night, I was up hiking again before daybreak. In the morning I had a rush of motivation, sometime in the afternoon I cried again, and at night I curled up shivering, watching the hours and minutes crawl by as I anxiously awaited the sun's warmth.
This pattern continued for the next few days, until one morning I passed a wooden sign posted to an oak tree, just past a steep rise along the ridge. It read, "N.C. / G.A.," indicating that I'd just stepped foot into North Carolina, and that I'd finished the entire Georgia section of the trail - an incredible feat in itself.
That afternoon I didn't cry, and later in the evening as I boiled water to cook dinner, I looked at the small map of the trail I had in my pack. It wasn't much, but I could finally see that I'd made a bit of progress up the trail. Over the course of the next 4 months, I still had plenty of low points, but each time, I looked back at my map, remembered when I was back in Georgia, and felt proud of how far I'd come.
Looking back motivated me to keep going. I knew as long as I kept moving I'd make it over the next climb, through the night, into the next state, and ultimately complete the trail. And then one day I did. And I cried harder than back on day 1 in those lonely Georgia mountains.
I wish I could say I'm immune to feeling overwhelmed by big goals. I'm not, but I try to remind myself to show up regularly, break goals into smaller pieces of work, focus on what I can accomplish today, remember to look back at the progress I've made and to appreciate the opportunity.
Thanks for the awesome story here :)
Justin - Thank you for this post!
For the last month I've been reconsidering the app I've been working on. Quite frankly it seems everyday there is a new company launching a similar thing to what I'm writing - to the point where I'm just demoralized as it seems to be such a huge step to go and compete with them now.
Thinking small is such a great way of focussing - thank you again - it was just what I needed.
Dude, you got this.
This is great advice and I wish I'd taken it to heart years sooner!
I wreaked both my finances and my wrists working on an extremely ambitious project I failed to raise money for two years ago. Now I'm slowly building up a cash-generating flywheel. I want to grow it, but I'm focused on doubling and then 4x-ing it instead of thinking about 1000x-ing it.
Well, I saw what your working on in our founder consult and I know for a fact it's the foundation of a great little business. Great job.
I completely agree with this!!! I have made the same mistake in the past and the result was a very heavy depression because I wasn't celebrating small successes. I've built a company which did $100k monthly, raised $800k, hired amazing people. Looking back I didn't celebrate those steps as I kept obsessing with the exit. The exit turned out to be not such a great acquihire thus not having a great reason of celebrating... This in turn caused me months of depression. What matters is the journey and the people you meet along the way :)
I was more just talking about the fact is that it's a grind and a marathon and a lot of seemingly small inconsequential steps that adds up to a lot through the power of gradualism.
But what you said is an excellent point and I am guilty of not celebrating small successes. Actually often times I don't even think they were a success when they were.
So thanks for this :)
It is the best advice but difficult to apprehend by the most of us who are too ambitious while working on their startups.
Yep, we got to scope down that ambition. Watch the video in my profile for more info about that!
Well said! I'm currently reading Little Bets by Peter Sims and it gave me a lot of inspiration to think small and go step by step.
Thanks! I'll check it out.
so true
Thanks Justin, it's really encouraging to us small startup founders to keep push through with small steps every day!
Boom!