Years ago, I had a 110-ish old hand saw mounted above my office door with the word SIMPLIFY below it.
It was a nice reminder every time I walked out to simplify as much as I could around everything I'm doing.
Just this week that reminder struck me again as I was thinking about the flywheel concept recently popularized (coined?) by Jim Collins. The hardest part of any business or project is getting started. If you can manage to take the steps to go from idea to execution, that's one of the highest leverage actions that you can take, and constitutes the "first turn of the flywheel".
Often, however, creators keep getting more and more ideas with each passing day, and they throw those ideas into the mix of things that they are doing this week or add them to today's to-do list.
The problem with that is that there are some ideas that will have a much greater effect if they are saved for later, once the flywheel has much more momentum.
It's like riding a bike in the high gear from the very start. It takes WAY more effort if you approach it that way than starting in the low gears. They provide more leverage when you're getting started, but at some point you shift into the higher gears so that you aren't pedaling at an insane cadence to maintain or increase your speed.
It's the same with ideas. For example, taking the first step to go from idea to execution is very easy, like a low gear on a bike. But changing your logo, or optimizing your email sequence, or creating a pitch deck to raise money are all things that don't move the flywheel much in the early stages of a business or project. Those are like high gears on a bike, better reserved for when you've already gained some speed and momentum in a given direction.
This whole thought exercise is a form of simplifying. Taking a tough concept like "how do I know what to do, I have so many ideas!!" and deciding what actions are low-gear and high leverage enough to actually get started, so that you don't fall over struggling with a high gear action because you never had any momentum to justify that gear.
Probably mixed too many metaphors in this inaugural HEY World post, but wanted to get started, because that's a simple, low gear action I could take in just a few minutes today.
Who knows what it might turn into down the road.
If you want to get future thoughts like this be sure to sign up to get them sent straight to your email.
Daren
It was a nice reminder every time I walked out to simplify as much as I could around everything I'm doing.
Just this week that reminder struck me again as I was thinking about the flywheel concept recently popularized (coined?) by Jim Collins. The hardest part of any business or project is getting started. If you can manage to take the steps to go from idea to execution, that's one of the highest leverage actions that you can take, and constitutes the "first turn of the flywheel".
Often, however, creators keep getting more and more ideas with each passing day, and they throw those ideas into the mix of things that they are doing this week or add them to today's to-do list.
The problem with that is that there are some ideas that will have a much greater effect if they are saved for later, once the flywheel has much more momentum.
It's like riding a bike in the high gear from the very start. It takes WAY more effort if you approach it that way than starting in the low gears. They provide more leverage when you're getting started, but at some point you shift into the higher gears so that you aren't pedaling at an insane cadence to maintain or increase your speed.
It's the same with ideas. For example, taking the first step to go from idea to execution is very easy, like a low gear on a bike. But changing your logo, or optimizing your email sequence, or creating a pitch deck to raise money are all things that don't move the flywheel much in the early stages of a business or project. Those are like high gears on a bike, better reserved for when you've already gained some speed and momentum in a given direction.
This whole thought exercise is a form of simplifying. Taking a tough concept like "how do I know what to do, I have so many ideas!!" and deciding what actions are low-gear and high leverage enough to actually get started, so that you don't fall over struggling with a high gear action because you never had any momentum to justify that gear.
Probably mixed too many metaphors in this inaugural HEY World post, but wanted to get started, because that's a simple, low gear action I could take in just a few minutes today.
Who knows what it might turn into down the road.
If you want to get future thoughts like this be sure to sign up to get them sent straight to your email.
Daren
Daren Smith
Helping artists, creatives, and small business owners get the results they want in their business. Join me here: daren.blog/start
Helping artists, creatives, and small business owners get the results they want in their business. Join me here: daren.blog/start