Guy Reams (00:01.07)
Today is day 228. How you start is not how you will be.
So I talked with Adam Harris from CloudBeds yesterday and during the conversation he made a comment that I thought was rather profound and it got me to thinking. Paraphrasing, he said that what he started out doing was not what he ended up doing.
The original idea did not pan out, but along the way, they discovered a better approach that was more relevant and more topical to the industry they were chasing. And through grit and perseverance, they were able to come up with a better, more successful solution.
That got me started to thinking about how helpful that realization could be to many people that are just starting out a new career, a new job, or a new business. We try to visualize the path to success when we first start out to confirm to ourselves that we're doing a good idea. We imagine what success will look like, what the path will be like, and what we'll ultimately end up being like. But...
The thing is, is that very rarely, in fact, hardly ever, I think, is what you think it's going to be, is what it actually ends up being. So all the angst and consternation about all these initial things when we're starting seem rather frivolous. I understand that we want it to be just right. We want everything to be perfect. We want to make all the right choices.
Guy Reams (01:36.366)
We want to hire the best people, come up with the best ideas. We want to have this meteoric and picturesque rise to success that shows up in an entrepreneur magazine one day. So you wring your hands and you worry and you furrow your brow and you second and triple guess. You dip your toe into the water and you look around to see who's looking at you.
What you do not realize is that these simple decisions that you are agonized over will have very little impact on your ultimate outcome. In fact, you will most likely not even remember them. When you finally do get interviewed for your glorious success story, you will brush over these inconsequential decisions and none of these things that have caused you so much worry when you start out will even make the highlight reel.
What is ultimately needed at the end of the day is experience. What you should be worried about is your grit, determination, and willingness to put the effort in when it is needed the most. Ideas can help, small choices along the way are necessary, and the people you surround yourself can sometimes be very critical. But none of this will matter much if you are not constantly pushing, looking, seeking, trying, and trying again.
If you do, then you will eventually find the right path, or you will create one. You will work it out, and you will learn what works and what does not work. You will have experience. You see, experience is the ingredient that you do not have when you first start out. You cannot manufacture experience. You cannot fake experience. You cannot gain experience from your AI tool. Experience is only gained one way, time under pressure.
So my advice? Stop worrying about your starting position. It makes little difference in your ultimate outcome. Worry instead about how you're going to perform during the race. What your life will end up being like is not something that you can predict. So give up trying. Start and run hard. See where this amazing life of hard work and perseverance will take you.