Speed is Your Greatest Asset
TL;DR:
Everyone has ideas. True competitive advantage comes from implementing them with speed. While most focus on strategy and perfection, which leads to stagnation, your focus should be on acquiring At-Bats. Success should be defined as an attempt that gives decision-making information instead of the desired end-goal output.
You have an idea that festers in your mind that you haven’t taken action on. Whether it is starting a business or implementing a new habit into your morning routine, something has been planted.
The problem that is not spoken about enough is the speed of implementation. It is common to have an idea and wait on it; oftentimes, due to fear.
Speed is the quickness you turn an idea into action.
Humans go into strategy mode and try to figure out what will happen after they have taken action, and how they can perfect the action to maximize these results.
Strategy sounds good, but it usually leads to procrastination, stagnation, and inaction, sometimes indefinitely.
Why Speed Matters
In the startup world, the goal is to launch a minimum viable product (MVP) to the market, allowing you to determine through customer interaction what most needs improvement.
And the same should go for your ideas if you would like to improve.
See, idea stagnation does not allow forward progress. You dwell on your idea, and the fear of moving forward keeps you stuck. You can’t work on the next problem or take the next step because fear has taken over.
If you can’t put your ideas into action, you will fail to progress forward!
If you take a long time to put your ideas into action, you will move forward slowly.
Putting ideas into action with speed is an invaluable practice and creates a competitive advantage!
The Goal: At-Bats
Many people set the goal of their idea as success, and this is what drives fear.
“If I start a podcast, will I succeed?” or “If I begin to work out at the gym, when will I look good?”
If you don’t succeed, you fail. And no one wants to fail, so you never try.
I want you to reframe your mindset.
Right now, you probably depict the end goal as your success indicator (gaining abs in the gym, 100,000+ subscribers, $10k per month business, etc). If you do anything less than this, you mentally consider it a failure. This creates a difficult barrier to entry for yourself that never needed to exist!
Instead, change your definition of success to gaining an At-Bat.
An At-Bat in baseball is when it is a batter’s turn at the plate. They have the opportunity to hit the ball.
So with you! Test your ideas. Give them the chance to perform and get some data points for yourself. Do you enjoy the work you put in? Are people receptive to this idea? Would you enjoy doing this again?
If you gave an idea a chance and made a decision to stop or continue based on acquired data, this is a success. You gained an At-Bat!
Let’s pretend you are like most ambitious people. The first job, business, idea, or startup typically is not the final answer. It usually takes a few tries to find the right thing. You wouldn’t know this if you had never tried the first one.
Pete Rose has 14,053 at-bats, the most in MLB history. He also has the most hits in MLB history. Focus on the quantity of at-bat attempts and let the numbers work for you!
A concept from a mentor that backs this up well:
If you knew your 10th business would be a huge success, how long would you wait to start your first one?
Get Rid of Permanence!
Taking action feels permanent, and many fears lie around time consumption: ‘Do I have enough time to do this on top of my already busy schedule?’
Get permanence out of your mind and make that decision once you have more information!
Take this newsletter, for example. I wanted to start a newsletter, but I was facing a 19-credit semester. I was concerned life would get in the way, and I wouldn’t be able to uphold the promise of weekly value.
Instead of promising a newsletter that I felt must be continued for the rest of my life, I decided on a 100-day sprint, 14 weeks. This let me get a taste of pulling together inputs and building valuable newsletters weekly without the pressure of continuity.
Now I get to make the decision, equipped with the experience, that I would like to continue.
And you can do the same with your ideas!
Take Action Right Now!
Create your own MVP. I assume you have an idea right now that you have been sitting on for a couple of days or maybe even a couple of years.
Take that idea and turn it into an At-Bat!
Specifically, define a reasonable trial period to test your idea. Give it proper time and attention to produce a reasonable desired output.
Once this trial period is completed, analyze and assess if you would like to continue.
Example:
Idea: Newsletter
Output: 14 Concise and Valuable Editions
Timeline: 100 Days
Cheers,
Spencer A.
P.S. I would love to see you take action. When you start your trial period, respond to this email so I can follow along!
