Driving a parked car
Written by John Teel.
When my son Aidan was little he loved to sit on my lap in the car and pretend to drive while we sat stationary in the driveway.
His “driving” was entirely focused on the steering wheel because that’s the only part of driving he could see us doing.
Of course, his feet were a long way from being able to reach the pedals:)
After doing this a couple of times I remember him asking me why the car didn’t turn when he was moving the steering wheel.
Surprisingly, the answer to his question applies equally well to bringing a new product to life.
You can’t steer a parked car!
It’s so common for entrepreneurs to get stuck in planning mode.
Partially, because they don’t know what to do next, but mainly I think because planning is safe.
There is no risk in planning. The risk is in the doing, and that can be scary.
The problem with planning is it’s like trying to steer a parked car.
Until you start moving by making real progress, you won’t have any data on which to base your decisions, so it’s impossible for you to steer your project in the right direction.
When planning, you’re basing decisions on your assumptions and not on real data.
It’s kind of like thinking that mapping out a trip ahead of time will tell you everything you need to drive that route.
But potholes, kids running across the street, and crazy drivers don’t show up on your map.
Neither does having your car break down, or running into a bad storm, or having a road closed due to an accident.
Don’t get me wrong, you need a plan, and developing and launching a new product is NOT something you do by the seat of your pants.
But just don’t over plan.
Get feedback from potential customers, validate your idea, build an early prototype, and talk with developers, manufacturers, and other experts.
The information you collect from these activities will be pivotal in guiding you in the right direction.
Eventually you can begin pre-selling your product, and that’s when you get the most valuable data there is for a new product – and that’s sales data!
The key is to keep moving forward, but to do so in small, incremental steps.
By taking lots of small steps, when you do mess up, then you only have to back up one small step.
Recently I was doing a steep hike when my back foot caught on a rock and I fell forward catching myself with my hands just before almost falling on my face.
Ouch!
By the way, I love hiking in the nearby mountains and it’s where I do all of my best thinking. And I rarely fall:)
When I fell I tore my hands up a bit, but thankfully I stopped short of smashing my face.
After looking around to make sure no one else witnessed my awkward fall, it occurred to me that even falling on your face is still moving forward.
In fact, I had fallen up a few steps, and within minutes was back on my way.
So don’t let your fear of mistakes prevent you from moving forward with your project.
Just take small steps, measure the results, adapt to the results, and then move forward from there, one step at a time until you reach your goal.
Even if it means that from time to time you may fall flat on your face.
