JUST SHIP IT

September 4th, 2018

When Batman started he was just a guy in balaclava and a stapler as a prop gun.  He didn’t wait for the suit, the car, the plane in order to start.  Even though he had the RESOURCES for all that stuff… getting started was more important than starting perfectly.    He was more concerned about having an impact as opposed to having the perfect impact.  Once he saw that impact was possible, he started LEVELLING UP his game in every way imaginable.

We all have a laundry list of things that we’d like to do and accomplish.  Unfortunately this laundry list is usually populated by ideal versions of accomplished goals.  The jump from nothing to perfect is not just intimidatingly large - it’s impossible.  Best to put the minimum viable effort into the project and ship it in some way, shape or form.  Shipping that first ITERATION does not have to be like Steve Jobs up on stage talking about the newest Iphone.  Remember, that guy started in a garage, and the circuit board was drawn on a piece of paper.  Shipping the first iteration of your project, dream, idea can be as simple as showing a friend.   Shipping the idea usually refers to a single event.  The moment when you open it up to the world.  But there are multiple degrees of shipping an idea.  Show a friend.  Show two.  Get feedback, ITERATE and ship again, perhaps with a quaint little google adword campaign.  Get feedback, ITERATE and ship again, perhaps with a larger audience. 

Remember though, the first audience we ship to is ourselves.  Best to be honest and sincere and admit that we truly have no idea how our idea will pan out.  Best to ship again, to a larger audience, one that is bigger than our scared little mind’s eye.

This episode references Episode 39: The Resources, Episode 42: Level-Up and Episode 121: Iterate.  If you’d like to fully explore these references, please check out any of those episodes next.