So, I had a wild hair. This happens from time to time. Entrepreneurs deal with this often. Literally today, I tweeted out:
The Entrepreneurs Prayer: God grant me the serenity to not turn my new hobby into a business.
What’s the wild hair?
I decided that I would try to write with someone watching over my shoulder. Not just anyone, though—the entire Internet. On my YouTube Channel. In fact, I am recording my screen right now as I type this out.
Why? Here’s a better question:
Why the hell not? (C/O Jason Fried)
Most people have a skewed idea of success. Success is iterative. What I mean by that is, rarely does an entrepreneur experience success out of the gate on any product or idea, let alone the first version of it. Instead, what they do is accept the risk that the first try will probably fail, and do it anyway.
The next version will be better! Do you have any idea how many different types of content I have tried on my YouTube channel? For that matter, across multiple YouTube channels? Have I found some things that work? Sure!
But that doesn’t mean I am going to stop innovating.
Frankly, I have no idea if anyone will ever watch the video I am recording right now. The post is about to be published. That will be out on the Internet forever. But it feels a lot more vulnerable to put the video out. Because it’s new, it’s scary, and I don’t know if anyone will like it.
What is holding you back? Are you scared of failure? While I don’t think failure is ever a worthy goal (i.e., I think the idea of “failing forward” kinda sucks), I do know that it is a real obstacle for some. Do your best to kick fear of failure in the face, and do the thing anyway.
It might work. It might not. You will never know unless you take action