Your amazing work is ahead of you. Today, you have a choice to give up, give in or give it all you’ve got. What do you lose if you give it all you’ve got. The worse that could happen is, you fail to impress..yourself. Or probably fail really hard and lose some money. But trust me, you will be better as someone who starts, makes, creates or do something. You are always better off as a starter than someone who refuse to do nothing. There is always everything to gain if you give it a shot. Don’t postpone an opportunity to show your work.
Start. Move, make, create, ship, do. Just start. That’s the only way to show the world what you can do. That’s what entrepreneurs do. They start. They start something. Sometimes it is something big. Sometimes it is a big failure. Either way, they got stuff done. And you can too. You just haven’t convinced yourself it’s worth a shot yet. You don’t need anyone’s attention or permission to show your great work. Wherever you are, whatever you are currently doing, you can still start something and pursue what you truly care about. Don’t hesitate. You have done that too many times already in the past.
Make decisions. Don’t overthink things. Don’t create extra problems. Get stuff done. Momentum happens. You get to be who you are. When you create something, whether it is art or an app or a company, it may be hard. It IS hard. But it is not work. It is your opportunity to be you. To pursue a passion and purpose that is yours. To be free. A career without fulfillment is empty. And it’s awfully hard to become who you were meant to be if you can’t pay your bills. You probably can’t give up your day job just yet, but you can still pursue your passion.
Don’t spend your whole life pursuing others’ dreams. Your goal should be progress, not perfection when you finally start doing what you love. Action begets outcome. Outcome begets action. Rinse, lather and repeat and you have momentum. You’ll become unstoppable.
There’s only one way to become good at something.
1. First, you must learn it by reading or listening to others who know how to do it, but most especially by doing.
2. Then do some more. At this point, you’ll start to understand it, but you’ll suck. This stage could take months.
3. Do some more. After a couple of years, you’ll get good at it.
4. Do some more. If you learn from mistakes, and aren’t afraid to make mistakes in the first place, you’ll go from good to great.
There’s no one who is great at his profession who hasn’t been doing it for a very long time — no designer, no programmer, no carpenter, no architect, no surgeon, no teacher, no musician, no artist … you get the point. I dare you to name one. Most have been doing it for for years, and are still looking to improve.
It takes desire, it takes drive, it takes lots and lots of doing.
So here’s the thing: don’t get discouraged if you’re just starting out. Have fun, like we all did in the beginning. If you have fun, you’ll learn to love it, and that’s when it clicks.
When you love something, you’ll want to do it all the time, sometimes late at night and often, you’ll jump out of bed and want to do it before you move your morning bowels.
THAT’S how you get great. By loving it so much your morning bowel movement takes second seat.
“Everybody has talent, it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is.” – George Lucas
Find that desire. Do it, don’t just read about it. Don’t buy a single product or book or magazine that claims to teach you something in minutes, hours, days. They’re lying to your face, with a hand in your pocket at the same time.
Do it, keep doing it, then keep doing it some more. It’s the only way to get great, but the good news: anyone can do it. It just takes some time and some doing. Hey presto.
When the world says, “Give up,” Hope whispers, “Try it one more time.”
Excerpted from the new book: Start. Make.Create.Do.
