“Procrastination is the thief of time.” – Edward Young

What Are You Waiting For? Start Firing Already! 

You are ready. Your start-up idea passed the various tests you gave it. You have a handle on the size of the market you’ll be competing in, the size of the lead players, the way they sell their products, and how your product might distinguish itself.

You’ve also done your best to understand the key investment considerations, including how much capital you’ll need to discover whether your marketing model works and, if it does, how many additional dollars you’ll have to come up with to get the business to the point where its cash flow is sufficient for future growth.

You don’t know all the details. And you understand that your product, however much you like it, is still untested in the market and may have to be altered or adjusted as the months go by.

You don’t know everything. You probably don’t know enough. But you have done all the essential work to get you, your product, and your business ready to go.

So, go head. Fire!

What?

You don’t feel quite ready to fire? You think that you should wait a bit longer, polish off a few hazy pieces and take care of a few last-minute chores?

The Fear of Firing: One Reason & Two Excuses Why Good Business Ideas Don’t Get Done 

Having done all the essential work to get your business ready to go, you might think that putting it into motion would be as simple as flipping a switch. And for a small percentage of first-time entrepreneurs, that’s true. But for many, the very process of working through the getting-ready stage ushers in a new and often surprising problem – something I call the fear of firing.

The fear of firing is a sense of anxiety that presents itself gradually during the early stages of getting the business idea ready. It then surges as the would-be entrepreneur realizes that the thinking and dreaming and planning is over and the next step is taking action: making that first sale.

The fear of firing is different than the fear of failure, that all-too popular explanation for procrastination in personal achievement endeavors of every sort. The fear of firing is a particular kind of anxiety that affects entrepreneurs. It is about launching a business. And although the fear of failure may be one component of the anxiety one feels, there are several other fears that are just as important – and just as real.

For example, there is the fear of losing money – the initial capital that will be invested in the start-up business – put at risk both by the entrepreneur and, in many cases, by other early investors.

There is also the fear of wasted time – the fear of spending the next year or so, working 24/7, which is what it generally takes (whether you like it or not) to get a new business into positive cash flow and profitability.

There is also – and I think this may be the most disabling worry – the fear of stepping into the unknown, of putting oneself in a constant position of having to solve problems that are new and confusing and/or complex.

These are real fears, not to be dismissed as irrational. I’ll tell you how I have learned to deal with them in a moment. But we have to recognize that for most people these fears do not present themselves as fear. Nor are they experienced with the rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, and all the other common symptoms of fear. Instead, they present themselves as necessities and urgencies, exigencies that must be dealt with before pulling the trigger and making that first real-time and real-market sale.

In the first edition of Ready, Fire, Aim, I focused on two of these feelings: the desire to further perfect the product, and the impulse to take care of dozens of small chores that keep appearing in one’s head.

As I said, these do not feel like fears. They feel like necessary and urgent tasks that must be done before the trigger is pulled. In fact, they are almost always quite the contrary. They are tasks that can be done – and, in fact, are better done –after the business has been launched. But because of the repressed anxiety, they don’t feel that way.

In an article in the Early to Rise e-zine, Robert Ringer explained why the first feeling – the desire to make the product perfect before you test the market’s appetite for it – is a mistake:

I believe all successful people share this trait [the willingness to move ahead with a good but imperfect product]. You cannot be action-oriented unless you are willing to make mistakes – even willing to look foolish or stupid. Remember the Michael Jordan ads where Jordan said that he’s missed something like 22 game-winning shots? He then finished by adding, “I succeed because I fail.”

People who are obsessed with playing the “what if” game are destined never to get out of the starting gate. In doing a brain scan on Bill Gates, the one thing I zeroed in on, above all else, was his strategy for getting Microsoft’s software out to the public as quickly as possible – bugs be damned!

Clearly, Gates’ philosophy has been that Microsoft can always deal with the predictable bugs and customer backlash down the road. And the biggest Microsoft haters in the world would have to admit that it’s a strategy that hasn’t worked out all that badly for Bill & Friends.

Microsoft is a perfect example of Ready, Fire, Aim in action. And if you think that Apple always gets everything right before launching a product, how do you account for their constant upgrades? Yes, Apple’s new products are always good. Good is what you are looking for. But they are almost never perfect at the outset. You can’t upgrade something that’s perfect.

The second symptom of the fear of firing – the sudden impulse to take care of every new little detail now – must be recognized for what it is: a symptom of the fear of firing.

My argument, in a single sentence, is this: In starting a business, activating the sales process quickly is generally more important than either perfecting the product or the business plan.

Do a quick but solid analysis of the market. Determine that your entry product adds some value to the competition that will be noticed and appreciated. Select a marketing strategy that is based on the best practices of the most successful companies in the industry. And then test your optimal selling strategy (OSS) as quickly and as cheaply as you can.

By restricting, as much as possible, the time and money you invest in launching your new business to the strategy above, you will be able to preserve capital, patience, and energy for refining marketing and product development after you’ve launched.

If this irks you, remember: If you don’t put all your money on the first spin of the wheel, there will be plenty of time and resources left to perfect your business plan later.

And keep this in mind: For every product or business idea that has failed because it wasn’t perfected before it was launched, a hundred never got launched because their champions (entrepreneurs or executives) got caught up in the make-it-perfect-first game.

Procrastination: The Two-Headed Killer of Good Business Ideas 

In the world of entrepreneurship, stillbirths are born from a two-headed monster. The first has a tattoo on its forehead of The God of Perfectionism. The other’s forehead bears the image of The God of One Final Detail.

Across the body of the torso that supports these two heads is a depiction of The Monster of Procrastination.

The two heads have wild hair and bright eyes. And when they talk, they both say the same thing: “I will get to it as soon as I finish up with such and such.”

Those are the words I most frequently hear after someone tells me excitedly about a new business idea they have.

And when I hear those words, I think: “Fat chance. You’re not going to start anything. Ever!”

That’s not a nice thing to think about someone surging with hopes and dreams. And, to be honest, I feel a little bit ashamed of myself each time. But experience has taught me that, however bright and ambitious and even successful someone has been in other areas of life, when the subject is starting a new business, the impulse to get started later is a dream killer.

More than a few times, when I liked the dreamer and thought the dream was possible, I’ve tried to overcome their impulse to procrastinate by offering to be a partner in the deal.

“Okay,” I’d say. “Here’s what we can do. I’ll give you some general advice. You learn the business and you do all the work. I’ll invest 80% or 90% of the money. And we’ll be partners.”

(Note: There was a time when I offered to put up all the money. I’ve since learned that this is a big mistake, that without “skin in the game,” the determination to follow through on all the difficult and challenging work dissipates as the work increases. And the work always increases.)

I have made this offer many, many times. And most of the time, the answer was, “That sounds great. Let me think about it and get back to you.” Of those that procrastinated, none ever got back to me. And I’m pretty sure that none of them ever succeeded in turning their great idea into a business.

Of the dozen or so that did not hesitate to take me up on my offer, all but two (that I remember) succeeded. Four became information publishers. One became a multi-millionaire in the advertising business. One created a $30 million business in the health and wellness field. And another (a group of three friends) created the largest and most successful training program for copywriters in the world.

After talking about their dreams for so long, these people were all emotionally ready to get going the moment I made the offer.

These experiences confirmed my belief in how much a part of success taking action is. What separated the few from the many that turned me down was not skill or knowledge or experience. It was their willingness to fire when the time was right for firing.

The Psychology of Procrastination 

Some say that entrepreneurs are born, not made. I don’t want to believe that. I do believe that anyone that is bright and ambitious can learn the skills needed to start and grow a successful business. But I have to admit that the instinct to procrastinate often seems built-in. Likewise, the impulse to get going right away seems to be an inherent personality trait.

When I think about my own personality, I can see that I lack some of the traits that are commonly attributed to entrepreneurs. I’m not, by nature, a risk taker when it comes to investing my money. On the contrary, I am very reluctant to engage in any form of gambling. I am also naturally a skeptical person. I don’t take easily to new ideas – especially those I can’t fully understand. But when I hear or conjure up an idea that feels good and exciting to me, my brain and my emotions immediately lock into the forward gear. And (usually) that means: Full speed ahead!