3 Tips for Creating Success

The light bulb just went on!

An old law school professor of mine was fond of saying, "sometimes it's a horse, not a zebra." Odd? A little bit, but what he meant to say was one can complicate things too much in search for the perfect answer. Sometimes the simplest path or explanation is the right one. (I think there's a corresponding maxim in medicine, too.) Simple is good.

Entrepreneurs tend to complicate things. At least the ones I know do, including me. Do you do that, too? Do you plot, plan, research, and revise until you're exhausted? I call it "hyperplanning" and I'm guilty of it,too.

What I experience is that projects get bogged down; my attention gets diverted and progress doesn't come as quickly or as easily as I'd like as a result of hyperplanning.

What I discovered (here's the light bulb) is that I only need three basic steps to succeed and they're really so simple you'll laugh out loud.

Three Tips for Creating Success

1. Start
   
   
2. Focus
   
   
3. Finish

You're laughing, of course. I did too until I realized how powerful this idea can be for anyone with a goal. Let me expand the idea a bit.

Start- That's right, actually start your project or task even if you haven't dotted every "i". Waiting until you've got all the conditions exactly right means you may wait so long you doubt your own abilities. Building a business is a fairly forgiving process. Start now and learn as you grow.


Focus- There are so many things in business, on the Internet, and in life to learn, it's easy to be distracted. I get distracted by new marketing stuff all the time.

I help myself stay focused by asking: Will this xxx help me achieve what I'm working on right now? It's a yes or no, maybe's aren't allowed. If the idea or tool isn't immediately helpful, I put it in my "check this out later" file.

Finish- It's hard to do. When I was creating ADRPracticebuilder.com there was always some new twist, tool, tweak that I could do. Each one was very cool and highly desirable, but delayed the launch further. What spurred me to completion was knowing that mediators I wanted to help were waiting for me. Think about your target market. Are they waiting for you? Let that desire to serve motivate you to finish.


Remember, a zebra is fancier to look at, but a horse gets the job done.

Try. Fail. Learn. Grow.

Dina