Business/Life 101: From Zero to Hero
I have always wondered how companies are started and how do they become so big with thousands of employees and all those lovely perks that we are reading about. Today we have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google … etc and we have all caught ourselves thinking how awesome it would be to become a CEO/Founder of such a company.
The other day I was reading an article that had some of those before/after website screenshots so they showed Google, Yahoo, TheFacebook and how terribly it was designed when first launched and compared to how they look today.
How does everything start?
This could be a bit lengthy article but I think it is worth reading as it comes from my own experience.
Well I was playing with my nephew today with some snow leftover from a couple of weeks back and we had some kids tool like a shovel and a bucket and at first I was just trying to keep him busy and we would fill the bucket with snow using our shovels but it was really slow. I was actually OK with that because I just wanted it to last longer and keep it interesting for him.
#1 Then at that moment I realized that after I had been shoveling and building some bucket shape snow caps for about 10 minutes, I wanted to make something out of it. So I asked myself what would be interesting to a 4-year old. (Purpose) I know when I was a kid I always wanted to have my own house or a fort. I decided to make some fort for him. Figured it would make a lovely memory. (When you have found an idea with an actual purpose, you need to use what you have at the moment to build something out of it. Work with what you have!)
#2 Then I started laying down the first row of snow caps and I wanted to go wide like 4x4 feet. Considering that I only had one hour to finish it I realized that if I wanted to finish it in time and still make it look nice, I would have to scale down on it and make a smaller fort. (Your time is your most valuable resource. Try to set your deadlines based on the amount of time and other resources you have at your disposal!)
#3 And then 10 minutes later I tried to speed up the process of building these snow caps but my hands were freezing cold so I asked my wife to bring me some winter gloves. Interestingly enough 4-year olds can’t keep their focus longer than 20 minutes since they easily get bored and they eventually want to do something else. I used that to change the way I build my snow caps and ditched the shovel and started grabbing snow with my hands. I was producing snow caps 4 times faster than what I did in the beginning. (Try to find a faster way to reach your goal. See if there is anything you can change in your development/routine to speed it up. In my experience, once you master one move, you will find a way to improve it or come up with a new move.)
#4 My time was elapsing quite fast and the next decision to be made was how tall that fort was going to be. By keeping in mind my time schedule and how tall my nephew was (I wanted him to be able to stand up inside but I also didn’t want to waste more than an hour) I was forced to compromise. (Consider your budget. You don’t have to have all the features in the beginning. Read about MVP — Minimum Viable Product)
#5 I finally made a decision on the width and the height of the fort and was able to meet my requirement. When I got my foundation, then it was time to start fine tuning the interior and exterior of the fort. I found some piece of wood and used it to shape up the walls and patch some holes along the way so you couldn’t notice the shape of snow caps. I forgot to say that my nephew pivoted like 30 minutes ago and I was left alone. He would carry some snow caps from time to time and came back to check in on his fort. Most of the time he would chase away other kids that started noticing his new fort. (Don’t think about all the shiny things before you had something solid to work with. You will know when it is the time to start beautifying your idea and merging all the other ideas that you had. From time to time, try to outsource some easy parts that would waste your time and affect your timing. You don’t have to do everything yourself.)
#6 The last thing was covering it (I used some paper as a roof) and turning it into a lovely memory for years to come. (Once you have used all your resources — time — material — strength launch it and see what other people think about it. You will find that you have plenty of ideas that you can use to make this even bigger which you weren’t able to use at the beginning.)
Conclusion:
6 steps ago I was just a zero and turned out being a hero for myself and my nephew. I was lucky to learn something new while being in a different environment where I constantly had to change my mind about what I was doing in order to meet all my requirements. After one hour I had something that was a product of my thoughts and the work of my hands. I materialized my thoughts, and allowed people to touch it, to play with it and I am proud and excited that I did something noticeable and made someone smile.
For those thinking that this is a stupid, irrelevant example, I challenge you to think deeper and see that all the rules can be applied to any business.
Don’t be discouraged if your first product doesn’t end up as you imagined. Each day brings new ideas and an opportunity to build upon it and expand on it.
Don’t be trapped underneath a pile of ideas that you can’t use at the moment. Clear your mind and see which of those ideas you can use to start with. Write the others down on a paper in case you want to go back to them later.
