Last week I overheard our office mate Marcus talking about getting things done. He took charge to implement a really cool thing we did for our Cinco de Mayo party - the Mozes jukebox. Anyone at the party (or anyone in the world for that matter) could pick the next song by sending an SMS to Mozes. This thing could take on a bit of its own life when we write about it on the Mozes blog.
I also saw he or someone else had written "Get 'er done" on a whiteboard above one of our team member's desks.
Procastination is the persistent enemy of every well-intentioned startup and every well-intentioned entrepreneur. There are a lot of obstacles to building a company and many of them are out of your control. But procastination is one of those very big obstacles that is fully within your control, and if you don't beat it down every time it rears its head, you are increasing your likelihood of failure by a multiple each time.
I know I am failing as an entreprenuer when there are steps I could take to advance the business and I don't take them. I'm not talking about the times whenI am too busy or when I am placing priority on another item. Prioritization is an art that sometimes I believe I have fully mastered (I haven't). I am talking about those times - on average at least 5 hours or more per week - that any individual has, regardless of how busy he or she claims to be, to take action on an item that deserves action, and choosing not to take it. Learning that bad choices come in the form of very bad excuses is a lesson that you won't understand until it is too late.
If you want to know the secret to having a shot at making a start-up successful, it is that the entrpreneur and the team get things done. They take action on a piece of the product that they know needs fixing. They watch numbers closely and take corrective action when they don't add up as planned. They make 10 sales calls a day to close those really important first few deals. They respond to follow up information requests from investors quickly. In other words, they get 'er done.
Who would have thought that Larry the Cable Guy would provide such sound business advice?
Posted by: Kyle | July 07, 2006 at 01:54 PM