Getting past "Ready, Set…"

Recently I spent an hour chatting with someone who built a company in the WordPress space and then exited profitably and successfully. One of the things he mentioned as we spoke was that some people have the problem of being “Ready, set, ready, set, ready set.”

In other words, they never get to the “Go” part of the deal. And while “ready” and “set” are important parts of the equation (though, to be honest, I’m less sure about how important “set” is when it comes right down to it), “Go” is the one that gets seen in the broader world. The more you “ready” and “set,” the less the world sees of you and whatever it is you think you’re doing.

And yes, he was pretty much saying that I was one of those people who had trouble with “Go.”

Hey: I do.

Trust me, I’m old enough to know better. But “go” sucks sometimes. “Go” puts you out there where you feel visible (though to be sure you’re always less visible than you feel). Visible is vulnerable. And “Go” tests your theories about what “Ready” was supposed to mean. It tests your theories about the marketplace by putting stuff out there in the marketplace. Like maybe if you’re totally wrong you’ll look stupid. It’s for real. It’s literally go time.

That’s my focus right now: Go. Just go. Plan if you must, but don’t plan to the point where you never go. Tie up the development for a minute and get out there to ask people if they want to buy your thing. Ask them why they don’t want to buy your thing, if they don’t. Find more people. Ask more people.

All of this is obvious, but like a lot of obvious things, it can be very hard to see.
I think this is really what makes “Build in Public” interesting. It’s not that it gives people a view into your strategies, your ups and downs, your last-minute, hair-on-fire solutions. It’s that it forces you to get going. You have to decide, you have to commit to the decision, you have to put the decision out there because, after all, you decided to build in public.

But whether you’re building in public or not, it’s important to be in public. That’s the only way you can go: in public.

So I set myself a deadline to get the product launched in a committed way toward the end of this past month. And I met that goal. Frankly, I sort of met that goal. It became instantly clear that really getting going meant very quickly adding on some more things. But I’m adding them, I’ve set some new goals and deadlines. And these are short deadlines, like the end of this month.

So, I don’t know if I’m building in public, but I’m fully committed to going in public. What about you?