The Art Of The Start (Or What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do)
Everything I’ve ever started in my life started with a total disaster.
Every website.
Every book.
Even this book right here.
Every online shop.
Every blog post.
Every talk.
I never felt ready for anything.
I never felt competent.
Or confident.
I always said to myself “it’s not the right time.”
I need to know more about it.
I need a better structure.
I need more money.
I need more time.
I need a better plan.
I need more ideas
I need more contacts.
More, more, more…
But the real magic doesn’t actually happen with more.
It happens with less.
When you make things happen with less.
But then again it might be true.
I might have needed all of the above things.
And maybe if I had all of the above things I would be a huge success.
Maybe…
Or, and I think that’s a lot more realistic, I would still be sitting in my cubicle planning my big escape.
I would probably still be strategizing about how to convince people to invest in my ideas.
I would probably still be planning strategies on how to find customers.
Strategies on how to do my first book launch.
Strategies on how to launch my blog.
On how to write my first blog post.
And finally, I would probably still be busy strategizing about strategizing.
And I would probably never have done anything in my life I would be proud of.
So here’s the thing…
The only thing you need to get started is to get started.
That’s all you really need.
That’s all you need to know about the art of the start…
And just in case you want to read more about how to get started, feel free to keep reading…
# IT’S NEVER THE RIGHT TIME
You’ll always be busy.
Busy with the kids.
The mortgage.
Taxes.
Your Job.
The family.
Your friends.
Vacation.
There will always be millions of things to take care of.
Millions of things that need your attention.
Millions of things to plan.
To prepare and to anticipate.
It’s never the right time.
That’s why every day is the right time.
The day you start is the right time.
Today is the right time.
Just like yesterday was the right time.
Just like tomorrow will be the right time.
Every day is the right time to get started…
# YOU’LL NEVER HAVE ENOUGH MONEY
You’ll never have enough money to get started.
Because the only way to have enough money is to get started.
To get started doing things that help you to make enough money.
Whatever that might be in your case.
It’s that simple…
# YOU’LL NEVER HAVE ENOUGH TIME
We all have 24 hours a day.
O r 1440 minutes.
Or 86400 seconds.
And even though we all have the exact same 24 hours each and every day some people seem to have more time than others.
How do they do it?
I don’t know.
The only thing I know is this…
You’ll never have enough time.
And you’ll always have enough time…
# YOU’LL NEVER BE GOOD AT IT
If you don’t do it.
The only way to become good at anything is to do it.
Over and over again.
I know I’ve said this many times already.
Because it’s true.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
Who knows?
The only way to know it is to do it…
# YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING
The only way to really know things is to do them.
You’ll never know whether people will buy your product until you start selling it and people actually start buying it.
You’ll never know whether she’s going to kiss you until you go over and start talking to her and she kisses you.
You’ll never know whether you’re a good writer until you start writing.
It’s impossible to know anything.
The only way to know it is to do it.
# DREAM BIG. THINK SMALL
It’s ok to think big.
But while thinking big, don’t forget all the small things.
Don’t forget about getting your hands dirty.
Don’t skip the hard work.
Don’t skip the things that don’t seem to matter.
Because the things that don’t seem to matter are actually the only things that matter…
# PLANS ARE BASED ON ASSUMPTIONS
And not the reality.
That’s why it’s pretty much useless to spend too much time planning.
Simply because you only know what to do, what to plan and what to take care of AFTER you’ve done it.
Once you know all the unexpected things.
And you can never know what unexpected things are going to happen.
That’s the nature of it.
So it’s impossible to know about all of the roadblocks ahead of time.
You’ll only see the unexpected roadblocks once you’re on the road.
Sure, you can plan ahead and avoid the roadblocks that you know about already.
But that’s only a fraction of the roadblocks you’re actually really going to encounter.
It’s almost always the unexpected things that’ll kill you.
It’s never the things you expected that’ll kill you.
And that’s what you need to do when you don’t know what to do.
And when I say “you”, I’m actually talking to myself.
That’s the art of the start…
This was a part of my new book The Underdogs Guide To Winning When You’ve Failed At Almost Everything. I’ll release the next part tomorrow. It’s also available for pre-order for pay-as-much-as-you-want. You can grab your copy here: https://gum.co/XHyRD
Originally published at yanngirard.typepad.com.

