Just Do Something

Today’s edition of Wishful Working is a 3 minute read.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been developing a new service offering, something slightly different from my usual work as a long-form content writer. 

I love the creative process of starting a new project, but it’s also exhausting. There are so many decisions to make:

• What do I call it?

• Does it need some cool branding?

• How about a separate website or landing page?

• What about a domain name?

• Should I use a website template or design it from scratch? 

• Or should I subcontract a designer?

• How much should this offering cost?

• What payment platform should I use?

• Wait, should I have an LLC? 🤪

The tricky thing is that each of these questions can spawn a new rabbit hole to go down and an endless supply of different options to compare, test, and abandon. Before long, you’re stuck in the place many creative projects go to die: Tinker Town.

When my friend Alexa introduced the idea of Tinker Town in her newsletter last month, it instantly resonated. Part of me would prefer to live in Tinker Town, where my ideas are theoretically perfect and can keep tweaking my creations forever without experiencing the vulnerability of sharing them with the world. 

But, as Alexa says, Tinker Town is a place to visit — not live.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that helpful concepts like this keep popping up recently:

• I keep seeing entrepreneurship content that emphasizes the purpose of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), a purposefully imperfect prototype.

• I just read a book that explained bias for action, a design thinking concept that emphasizes taking immediate steps and experimenting rather than spending excessive time planning and analyzing.

• I read another book where the author encouraged entrepreneurs to validate their new business ideas by making a sale as soon as humanly possible and without spending much time building a website...

Okay, universe! I get it! 

We can — and should — introduce new things into the world before they’re 100% fully formed and perfect!

Even though my preference would be to keep ideas locked away until they are as close to perfect as possible, that’s really not what’s best for me (or my ideas). “Perfect” isn’t the goal, anyway! Entrepreneurship is about iteration and improvement based on feedback, and you can’t get feedback if you don’t share your work.

And If I’m really honest with myself, the overplanning and hesitation isn’t really about perfection.

It’s about fear.

Fear of rejection, fear of failure.

Although I haven’t launched my new project publicly, I have shared it with a few friends and fellow freelancers. And guess what? It’s scary. 😂 But it’s also extremely beneficial. These people have given me invaluable feedback to improve my offering, along with enthusiastic encouragement that boosts my confidence and keeps me going.

Your community wants you to succeed. If they don’t — find a new community. 

I would also recommend asking yourself this question:

What’s the worst that could happen when you put something new into the world?

Even a chronic overthinker like me can eventually realize that the stakes are low. Yeah, your idea could flop. So what? You’re a creative entrepreneur. You’ll come up with something new. Great ideas are not in short supply.

At least — that’s what I’m telling myself 😉

Btw, I’m rooting for you.

See you next week,

Kara