Jun 18, 2018
Are You a Slave of the Pressure to Create Results Quickly?
You won’t get anywhere like this.
Many of us constantly feel under pressure. We want things to happen fast. We want to get our products to market fast. We want to start selling fast. We want to make profit fast.
This directs our focus into the wrong direction.
Our concentration is purely on the question of how we can make it happen as soon as possible. We sacrifice research, experimentation, and a willingness to take the time our products need to evolve into the best version, they can possibly be.
Sure, it is fine to work with an MVP.
I am not trying to criticise the whole concept of quick validation of our assumptions, getting to market fast, and continuous experimentation, in order to create a viable business model.
What I am criticising, is the mind-set this has led to. It is a mind-set of short-term thinking. A mind-set, where we dismiss anything, that doesn’t lead to results anytime soon.
True creation and innovation take time.
They take time, to evolve into their best possible version.
Oftentimes, this requires years and years of improvement, refinement, and small adjustments, until the product evolves into the best version it possibly can. And yet, hardly anybody has the patience, to go through this process.
We seem to be under a constant pressure, to drive results quickly.
Bootstrapped businesses.
As Seth Godin writes in the Bootstrapper Bible:
“The bootstrapper is in here for the long haul.”
I think, that this is the primary advantage a boostrapped business, compared to one which is using investment money.
A bootstrapped business has the luxury of developing at its own pace. The owner has complete control over the speed, at which the business is developing. Or, as Seth argues, he or she can be happy to remain a small fish, for as long as it is helpful, or necessary.
A bootstrapper doesn’t need to go into competition with anybody. They can take their time, to develop their business into something so unique, that competition simply doesn’t exist.
And yet, many bootstrappers approach their businesses, with the same mind-set that investors have: scaling as quickly as possible.
This combines the two disadvantages of a boostrapped business:
- It doesn’t sit on large sums of cash
- It doesn’t have the resources to scale quickly
Why would somebody do this? Why do we give in to the temptation of having to drive results quickly? Is it, because we simply observe what the other people around us are doing? Is it, because we are falling into the comparison trap?
You don’t owe it to anyone.
You are not obliged to drive results quickly. You can grow at the pace, you yourself choose. Or rather, at the pace, that is realistic and healthy for your business.
As long, as you maintain a minimum amount of cash flow.
Our brain is not wired for long-term thinking.
Our brain is primarily concerned with our current survival. It thinks primarily about not starving right now, rather than thinking about how our business is going to develop over the next few years.
The problem is this:
If we are constantly in ‘survival mode’, or even ‘short-term maximization mode’, then we are never going to think about taking the necessary steps now, in order to achieve the best results possible on the long-term.
We don’t question our assumptions.
We don’t do the necessary research.
We don’t keep collecting data.
We don’t keep experimenting.
In other words, we only focus on getting sales as quickly as possible, rather than being in a constant state of improving our business, on every single important aspect.
We manage the here and now of our business. Instead of remaining in a constant state of innovation and re-invention.
Conclusion:
In order for a business to develop into something meaningful, it needs to be in a constant state of improvement. You will need to take the necessary steps RIGHT NOW, that are going to improve your business on the long-term.
You can’t just be a manager of your business.
Instead, you need to remain a visionary.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you can neglect cash flow. Survival is still the most important priority of every single business. But just surviving, is simply not enough.
If you are focusing on just surviving today, then you are going to be out of business tomorrow.
Why?
Because somebody else, will completely outperform you. Not because they have a better cash-flow than you. But because they have continuously tried to make their business the best version, of what it possibly could be.
Because they have succeeded in balancing future-orientation, innovation, and maintenance of their current business.
Tim Rettig is the author of “Struggling Forward: Embrace the struggle. Achieve your dreams”. It’s a book about the psychological journey of struggle, which every (creative) entrepreneur must pass through, before they can turn their vision into reality.
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 335,210+ people.
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