When you have a great idea for a business, you usually feel an undeniable sense of urgency to get started right away. You feel like you need to hurry up and make your idea a reality before someone beats you to it.
But somewhere deep down among the layers of emotion that you have once you start planning your business, is this ugly creature called Doubt. Doubt can rear its ugly head at the most inopportune times and completely kill all the momentum that your sense of urgency gave you.
That doubt leads to fear and that fear causes you to procrastinate. You put off going balls to the wall with your idea because you don’t have the right laptop, or you need a new camera, or your ink pens don’t write right, or any other silly excuse you can make.
Why does it feel like I’m talking directly to you? Because I am!
I’ve been there. I’ve made up all sorts of excuses for why I wasn’t ready to start pursuing my dreams, but I always had a little voice in my head telling me, “You already have everything you need to be successful”. Doubt still comes and goes, but part of what makes it easier to dismiss the doubt now is that #1, I’ve already made progress toward my goals and I refuse to throw that away and #2, I’ve put myself “out there” and I know that I must hold myself accountable for what I’ve committed to.
Some of the biggest brands started with what they had, where they were — imperfectly.
- Bill Bowerman, the man who founded Nike with Phil Knight, used a waffle iron to make the soles of the first Nike running shoes.
- When Google was started, it was called BackRub.
- Jeff Bezos started Amazon from his garage and he only sold books at first.
- Starbucks started by selling coffee beans locally, and only after being bought by an employee, started selling pre-made coffee.
- The founders of Whole Foods were evicted from their first location.
- Instagram was started as a check-in app, but with pictures, and it was actually a side-hustle from a rented desk in a shared office space.
- The first Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream location was in an abandoned gas station.
And there are thousands of other successful businesses that were started under less than ideal circumstances and became extremely successful. The only difference between them and you is that they started.
So if you’re sitting somewhere, reading this article — first of all, thank you — and allowing procrastination to kill your dream, make the decision right now to finish this article 🙂 and get started working toward that dream today. After all, you already have everything you need to be successful!