“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”  Laozi (Chinese Philosopher)

Startups are hard. Doing something big, relevant, or even just getting started to do something new can all be hard or downright paralyzing. What’s the right strategic move? How will investors react? What if my team doesn’t like the direction? Will I ever sell anything? These things can freeze you and leave you lying in bed at night, staring at the ceiling, looking for answers that just don’t come. The reason is simple; THERE ARE NO ANSWERS. There is no right or wrong choice, at least not yet… You don’t have enough information to make a decision, so you could sit on a park bench for hours, days, or weeks and it won’t become clear… you simply have to get started. Resolve to pick a direction. Decide based on your gut or flip a coin if you have to, but pick a path and GO.  Motion matters.

Once you are in motion things have a way of becoming clear. You may find you are swimming upstream, and the progress is tough. If this continues you are learning something valuable. Double your efforts (don’t give up) to make sure you weren’t about to break through, but if the challenge continues, you know the direction is wrong, you learned it quickly, and you can adjust to a better path. This is valuable and good. Don’t be discouraged… embrace what you have learned, adjust and GO again.

There is MASSIVE value in learning through motion. You learn quicker and more definitively. The market is telling you what you need to know versus sitting around thinking and debating.

And even better, sometimes you are right. You feel the tailwinds, you are cruising down the path, and the direction is great. Go forward with confidence, perhaps even hit the accelerator.

So if you want to get something done, just get started and let the market guide you until your internal signals are strong enough.

Photo credit: alib824