Move Without The Ball
Eager to start your own business, read on. Remember Pete Rose? Most hits in MLB history. Guess who has the most at-bats? Pete Rose. Much of business is trying and failing, re-calculating and trying again. Iterating. People say all the time, if I had a million dollars I could make my idea work. Very bad idea to start with a million dollars before you have moved without the ball. This country is ripe with reasons and excuses of why we cannot develop our idea. Every success story starts with move without the ball.
What is movement?
Before money benefits, movement is essential i.e. a business plan, seeking applicable knowledge, networking with potential team members, founders, and investors, identifying potential pain points and customers, deciding if you are building a business, a feature, or a product. These actions are steps that set about a chain reaction, very similar to how enzymes cascade into reactions in the human body. Many of these steps are precursory and do not interface directly with the outcome, yet without them there would be no outcome.
Too often Americans over emphasize the downside of blowing it.
Think of , or all the would-be game winning shots by NBA basketball players. Think of every entrepreneur that has tried something and failed. I guarantee an internal note was made, a calibration took place, a lesson was learned inside each person that tried and failed. An iteration. Each action (good or bad) is movement toward your dream, company, or product. These movements, motions, patterns, strategies, routines are rarely noticed, well, until the company is visible.
It is impossible to guarantee whether a product will thrive or die, the only thing you can guarantee is that you do what you say you will do. Complete measurables. Swing the bat and strike out. But do not sit on the sideline and talk about how you would swing the bat. Talk is cheap until you start moving without the ball. I am not discounting first ideas that require 1-20 million in seed funds to activate. Sure if your idea is technological or biological it may require significant amounts of startup capital before it is profitable. I am talking more to low barrier verticals.
Why is movement important?
Movement instills trust in your networks and gives you an opportunity to take a shot. We have all failed; failure is not to be feared. Standing still when no one is passing you the ball is to be feared. Each failure is like a key on my key ring. And inside my mind is how each key turned the lock. Movement without the ball is the color of survival, it is the color of entrepreneurship, and it is the color of success. Every competitive advantage that leads to success at the individual is fungible, except moving without the ball. Flip a coin three times and you do not know if you have a fair coin, flip a coin 1000 times and you do. What is an ingredient in the secret sauce? Movement without the ball.