You\’ve heard of the \”paralysis of analysis.\” It happens when you think too much. That\’s not something that many people have accused me of doing very often (the opposite does tends to crop up quite a bit though) but it is something that I know afflicts many entrepreneurs, especially new ones.
They think and they plan. They research the market and they examine the competition. And when the time comes to take action, they\’ve become so sick of the idea that they no longer want to do anything.
Of course, the opposite happens too. There are plenty of people who have a brainwave, get to work right away… and then discover that someone else is already doing exactly the same thing (only better than them). Or they find that they have no idea how to actually build their gizmo, or market it, or what it\’s actually supposed to do.
They give up pretty quickly too.
It\’s not enough to have a good idea if you want to be a success. Nor is it enough to be willing to work hard and put in the extra hours. Those are both essential, but they\’re not enough.
You also have to know what you\’re doing, why you\’re doing it, and how you\’re going to do it.
That means finding a balance between the enthusiasm to jump in and the preparation you need to get through the tough bits. You should be able to rely on your gut to judge the right moment to start, but I find it usually comes after I\’ve slept on the idea, after I\’ve bounced it off a few people, after I\’ve looked at the main competition, and after I\’ve identified the biggest challenges I\’m likely to encounter and understood how I\’m going to overcome them.
That doesn\’t mean I\’ll have everything planned out. But I will have a vision of what I\’m trying to do, and know what I need to do to achieve it. After that, I just need the flexibility to deal with all of the surprises that will come up – and surprises come up in every project.
Experienced entrepreneurs understand that you can prepare too much and that you can prepare too little. They start with the right balance… then push on through to the end.