When your vision seems an ocean away, here are 3 reasons to start swimming.

Here in the California desert, surrounded by rugged mountains hours from the coast on what may be the first 100 degree day of the year, the ocean has never seemed quite so distant.

How do you forge ahead when your destination is nowhere in sight?

And yet, when I think about our startup enterprise, Protoqual Learning Systems, nautical metaphors are all that spring to mind this afternoon.

Now maybe I just need a beach day. But it’s also undeniably true that maritime metaphors are overused because sometimes they are just too perfect to ignore.

How better to capture the emotion that entrepreneurs experience when, after investing tremendous financial, intellectual and emotional resources to construct a vision that will make the world a better place, we realize that the fulfillment of this vision is an ocean away?

We draw maps, to be sure. We measure distances, plot latitudes and longitudes, identify potential waypoints, stock resources, and plan for eventualities. But three essential truths remain:

1. We don’t know precisely what lies over the horizon.
2. It feels reckless and imprudent, even dangerous, to strike out toward the unknown.
3. No amount of preparation can adequately prepare us for what we may encounter.

It looks pretty scary out there.

After all, the safest place for a ship is in port, right?

Wrong. At least in this unique universe.

The more I learn from visionaries in this space, the more I realize that the single most important attribute successful entrepreneurs possess is a relentless and consuming drive to move forever forward in pursuit of their vision. They may encounter storms, detours, and even dragons, but those challenges will always be there to identify and overcome. Waiting won’t change that.

Find your dragons and slay them.

I’m not advancing an argument against planning and preparation. But I am advocating this: as you consider delays, pauses and pivots, as you identify the obstacles to progress, and when the road ahead looks especially long and daunting, remember these three reasons to take the plunge.

1. You are solving a problem that will make a difference in people’s lives. At Protoqual, we are working to transform medical education by targeting the individual needs of healthcare professionals in a way that respects their busy lives. We believe that this will improve the quality of medical care, reduce costs, and result in better population health. That’s a goal worth late nights, some carpal tunnel syndrome, and a little heartache.
2. You believe that your vision is a beacon that points the way to the right destination. For us, that means confidence in the power of education to change healthcare provider behaviors. By following best education practices, and by using analytics and performance metrics, we can validate correlations between educational interventions, better physician performance, and healthier patients.
3. You believe your team has the talent, dedication, and adaptability to face anything the ocean throws at you. As we built the Protoqual team, I’ve learned to appreciate this reason most of all. When your team brings diverse skills and determination to a common purpose, no challenge is insurmountable.

Taking time to reflect on these three reasons has helped bring me conviction and confidence as I help Protoqual navigate across an unfamiliar landscape toward a destination full of unknowns. I hope these thoughts help you as well.

And I hope to see you out there swimming.