I came across the following quote the other day:
Those who say it can’t be done should get out of the way of those who are already doing it.
Unfortunately people don’t always follow this advice. I was about to flip it round and write something about success, but if you want advice about success there are better people to listen to than me.
I do, however, know something about trying, and trying is often harder than succeeding: the leap between the status quo and trying to change it is often wider than the leap between trying to change it and succeeding. Often the opinions of others – especially those who we respect – can be paralyzing (what if they’re right? what if I’m being stupid? what will they think if I fail?).
Just to try, you need to listen to what other people say and then ignore them. Of course, this isn’t always true. And it’s not clear when it holds, except in retrospect.
Success centered or not I think your analysis is pretty inspiring and dead on. Your list of questions, “(what if they’re right? what if I’m being stupid? what will they think if I fail?)”, is the ultimate reason why there are relatively few entrepreneurs in the world.
The barriers to trying — especially in software and the marketing of it — have never been lower, so there’s no excuse not to try, fail, try again and repeat until successful.
With software, a company can try out new capabilities or GUI’s early in the development process and determine whether or not they will fly before committing the big bucks. You can give away programs early in their gestation and see if they are worth developing further. On the marketing side, you are no longer hemmed in by unyielding advertising plans set in stone 12 months before. All sorts of approaches can be tried and discarded or fine-tuned or placed on the shelf to try again at a later time. Too many marketing teams are playing by the old rules — acting like an American football team changing the game plan a week before the playoffs. This isn’t “one and done.” It’s more like having 100 shots to hit the bullseye in darts.
The definition of a failure now is someone too complacent or fearful to try something new.
“The barriers to trying — especially in software and the marketing of it — have never been lower, so there’s no excuse not to try, fail, try again and repeat until successful.”
I suppose that this is true to some degree, but only if you’re young. If you have a family to provide for, or retirement on the horizon, then try, fail try again is not a feasible model. Moreover, I think it’s fair to say that Bob’s post understates the difficulty of pursuing a business idea. A lot of factors come into play. The most significant of these, at times, is risk appetite. I think you see where I’m taking this…