Stop Thinking, Start Doing
I talk to people all the time who want to start on their entrepreneurship journey, but can’t find a good idea to work on.
If this is you, stop. Stop thinking about ideas, and start doing shit!
This is the premise of New York Times bestselling author and co-founder of PBwiki Ramit Sethi. Sethi wrote about this in a blog post from 2005 (I know I have been digging back in the web archive) titled The Myth of the Great Idea.
Ramit says:
Success almost never comes from a mind-blowing idea, so sitting around trying to find one is a waste of time. Success comes from a basic idea executed amazingly well. Ideas are rarely found by thinking. They’re found by doing.
Steps to Stop Thinking and Start Doing
Ramit goes on to break down a simple framework to start doing in this blog post. Please go read, and reread it if you are still stuck in the idea phase of your entrepreneurial journey.
Below are the basics steps in the framework. Ramit provides more details as this is just a quick and dirty summary for reference.
- Identify a broad, high-level goal. It might be a social impact, industry, a lifestyle, or a financial outcome
- Write down the things you like and the things you don’t like ( I also suggest writing down your strengths, weaknesses, and motivations).
- Narrow down 1 and 2 by identifying opportunities that will open up more doors in the right area to get your closer to your goal
- Break down how to go after the opportunities in 3 into multiple smaller, short term, attainable steps
- After you start executing the steps you created in 4, start eliminating opportunities and choices in 3 that you don’t like based on the work you are doing
- Keep repeating 3, 4, and 5 until you reach your goal.