How to get over failure to launch

The best time to have started was yesterday. The second best time is today. Tomorrow, you will call today, ‘yesterday’. So you had better get a move on.

START NOW

We seem to have an aversion to starting. Many people ask is it too early, too late, is this the right time? Then we throw in the hows: How do I invest, save, budget, start a business, scale up, hire, plan for retirement etc? All these things are answered along the way. You only get better as you do them. You will never learn unless you actually start. Most of the problem is not the technical knowhow.

There are reasons we don’t actually do the things we want to do. Have you ever had an idea, did nothing about it and then three years later saw somebody else doing the same thing? Then you feel bad because it was your idea. This has happened so many times to so many people; I now believe we do not have ownership of ideas. We may be custodians of that idea for a period but if we don’t do anything, it can move on. Or you wanted to invest somewhere and held back. Later, you hear people talking about how much money they made. These are the consequences of not starting. A lot of the answers you are looking for today is in starting. So why don’t we just do it.

FEAR OF FAILURE

We fear failure too much. At some point in our lives we learnt that fear is bad. However, we fail every now and then. When we avoid failure we don’t learn the very essential lessons we need to move on. It’s better to start with what you have so that you can fail fast, fail quickly and preferably fail cheaply. We would prefer to have the perfect scenario laid out so that we make a move. We do copious amounts of research and want to have the perfect plan.

Many businesses have not started because people are still writing business plans that will never actually work because practical business plans are developed as you execute. The rest are just nice things to put on paper. Many people also say they first need capital. You had better try and fail with the resources you have rather than huge amounts of money you raised for a theoretical business. The journey develops the plan. It’s not the other way round.

We also don’t start because of being overly concerned with what others think. Somewhere in our socialisation we learnt that the more people approve of something, the better it is. The less people approve of it, the worse it is. Well, many people approve of taking shortcuts through bribery but it doesn’t make it right. That hunch or idea was given to you. When you got it, it wasn’t given to 30 other people. Why are you then listening to them?

There are a few people however who may have valuable input for you and usually they are giving you a different insight (from experience and not ignorant chatter) or pointing out things that you should consider. That’s important to listen to. Just be wary of people who are quick to tell you it will never work. You are not doing this for people but for yourself. This life journey is yours.

COMFORT ZONES

We love our comfort zones. Sometimes we have already started something and then we get stuck there. For example, we have run our businesses a certain way and that may have worked for a while. But now we may need to innovate, get fresh ideas, use technology etc. But we don’t start doing things differently because the old way is very comfortable.

Don’t get too used to the way things are that you can’t see the way things should or can be. Every season is a chance to look at your life, finances, career and business as a blank sheet of paper and dream again or rewrite the script.

Whatever you have been thinking about, just start. Act – do the next best step that is in front of you. Take the lessons both the good and the bad and then build on that.

Waceke runs a courses on entrepreneurship. Get in touch with her on [email protected]|Facebook/WacekeNduati| Twitter@cekenduati