Many people I know have problems finishing projects they start. I used to have this problem a few years back. Building up a story about the launch in my head and making it a big deal and thereby psyching myself “out” of it. There are 3 main reasons why people don’t launch.
Thinking forward all the time: They don’t have any idea about the number and the kind of steps that are left for the launch because they don’t think backward. They only think forward.
Perfectionism: People want it to be perfect, and therefore they keep adding to what their product can do.
They have weird expectations about launching: They have unrealistic expectations about launch day, and they have built it up in their head.
Here are a few ways to think about, approach it which might work as an antidote to this perennial postponement problem. I have used all of them in the many projects that I have done to get them out of the gate, including my latest SAAS product Proxies API.
Unpsyche yourself: Don’t make a big about the day of the launch. Build a false narrative about the next day being a huge day is very helpful for me and also highlights the fact that I am getting nervous about a ridiculous thing. I do the same with my first client, my first ten clients, my first 100 clients, my first 10k in revenue, etc. Don’t build it up. It's no big deal. Don’t even celebrate it if you have this problem, so that you send a message to your brain that you won’t have had any of it next time.
Your Identity: Don’t associate your work too closely with who you are. By that, I mean, your work doesn’t reflect who you are. Not at all. Otherwise, nobody would ever learn anything. The learning curve would be a dot. It is stupid. So stop it. The aim is prolific instead of perfect, and for that, you have to stop looking at anything you produce as being holy.
De-sensitise: Pretend it is launch day today. Go into it as if you are going to launch, so you do things in reverse. Typing up all the loose ends. Its play was acting to prepare you for the day mentally. You can even pretend that it is launch hour now and see what you need to do to get the house in order.
Reduce Expectations: Don’t think of a launch as one event. Tell yourself that you will have five stars. Maybe one every week and even plan what goes into that.
Reduce the pressure: Don’t tell your closest friends if it helps you when you launch till you are comfortable. Launch to strangers first and many times after that. Don’t say to your friends ever. Who cares.
Listen to the experts: If you can not permit yourself, at least listen to the silicon valley icons who know what it takes.
a) Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn says that ‘’If you are not embarrassed a little bit about your first launch, you have launched too late.”
b) Paul Graham of Y Combinator says “Release early” as the first piece of advice to start-ups in his essay about lessons that founders find hard to learn.
Put these quotes in your office/desk, so it seeps in.
The author is the founder of Proxies API, a proxy rotation api service.
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