That’s the message for success by many leading thinkers today. What that means is don’t wait for it to be perfect – it never will. Get it out there, get feedback and repeat. It’s never the smartest who win – it’s those who work the hardest at executing ideas. Those that fail quickly, get back up and try again.
This is something I always have to remind myself because I have perfectionist tendencies. Just one more edit. Just one more information source or data point and it’ll be ready. Problem is, it never will be. That’s why you need to get it as good as you can and hit send, print, publish or produce depending on what it is. But that doesn’t mean put a bunch of half-baked, sloppy ideas out there. It doesn’t mean spend 5 minutes on a direct mail letter and print it. It just means do enough due diligence to get it good, then release. And listen to your feedback. Look at why your results were stellar as well as why you flopped.
A sure way to keep shipping is to ship things on which you’re not betting the farm. Have a multi-layered approach with other things on the runway as you ship. So you can turn to the next iteration once you see how the latest performed.
I know someone who’s been working on a subscription website since at least 2004. Hasn’t shipped it yet. Last I heard she’s still working on it. Guess how relevant the work done from 2004 to 2008 is? Think about web technology in 2004. That’s before smart phones became common. That’s THREE years before the iphone. Needless to say, much has changed since then. She could have shipped, evaluated and had an incredible product in those six plus years. But all she has is a lot of money and time spent to show for it.
Get it out there. That’s my MO for the year. Make it yours too.