When Aaron and I started our first online business, we were clueless about the finer points of html and css coding. Yet, we were prudent, tried to avoid risk, and focus on ways to make money. We got it "right" later. Creation is sometimes messy. Image © iStockphoto/Thinkstock
The most important part of success in life is: Get Started.
Too many people wait until things are “perfect” or until they are completely confident in themselves. They are paralyzed by fear. They worry about the judgment of others; about public embarrassment if they fail.
Don’t. Set your sight on your future and what you want in life. Start walking toward your promised land; you can figure out the details as you go.
The very first website we built, which generates a good amount of money for us each year, was created when we didn’t know anything more than basic html markup. We had no idea how CSS worked, how templates could be used to automate certain layout elements, and how we could use div tags rather than tables to format content. We were the intellectual equivalent of 3rd graders compared to a lot of people building websites.
[mainbodyad]Today, given our much improved skill set, I cringe when I look at the code that runs the site. It is ugly. I mean, any self-respecting web designer would choke on their coffee when they looked under the hood because it is the binary equivalent of duct tape, wire hangers and paperclips. But the point is, we created a product and service people wanted, at an attractive price and got it to the top of the search engines. If we had waited to debut the site until it “was perfect”, we would have missed years of profits and wouldn’t have the market share we do today.
This doesn’t mean go into something unprepared or before you can handle it. Rather, it means stop letting fear hold you back when you have everything but the moxie to proceed.
One way I did this early in my life was secrecy. When I launched a new project or idea, I didn’t tell anyone. That gave me emotional freedom because if things went wrong, I could “take it out back and shoot it” without a single person knowing of the failure. If it was successful, it would look like it came out of nowhere.
Whatever it is you want in your life, start walking. Put one foot in front of another and get started. As you sit here, your life is passing you by. Time, unlike money, cannot be stored. Once squandered, it runs through your fingers never to return. Go. Achieve. Live. If you wait for everything in life to be perfect before you go after your dreams, you will die without seeing any of it accomplished.
