We have a saying in rock climbing, put up or shut up. It's said to someone that's always talking about how close they are to sending their latest project. Or sometimes it's said when someone is making excuses for failing to send something.
"I'm one move away from sending that." or "I would have sent that but my finger was jacked up that day."
"Put up or shut up dude."
It may appear to have a nasty connotation, but it's really meant to hold us accountable to a standard. There's no such thing as almost sending your project. You either climb the thing, without falling, and have stood on top of it or you didn't.
Business is hard. Being an entrepreneur is hard. We're prone to the same types of excuses that climbers make. The sale you almost made. The features that almost shipped on time. We make these excuses thinking they are positive re-enforcement but what they re-enforce is mediocre performance.
Another way to look at this is holding yourself as accountable as you would hold any team. How long would you keep a salesperson around that continued to miss the mark? How long would you keep a creative or product team around that failed to ship meaningful work? As a founder and practitioner, I hold a role in my business as well as work on it. Am I performing to the same standard that I would hold an employee to?
2023 was a tough year for many. Almost every business owner we know reported worse numbers than in 2022, my business partner and I included. It's easy to say it was a hard year. But somebody performed last year. Somebody put up better numbers. I don't know what 2024 holds for the economy but even if it bottoms out, there's someone out there that's going to hit their goals. There's someone that's putting up while everyone else is making excuses.
In business winning isn't always beating the year before, but if your goal is to grow then that's what you need to do. If you're a bootstrapper, you also need to be profitable every single year to survive, no excuses. We were profitable, but we didn't hit our growth goal. We could pat ourselves on the back and say were 50% successful or we almost hit our growth goal. But I can't help but look in the mirror and think, put up or shut up dude.
"I'm one move away from sending that." or "I would have sent that but my finger was jacked up that day."
"Put up or shut up dude."
It may appear to have a nasty connotation, but it's really meant to hold us accountable to a standard. There's no such thing as almost sending your project. You either climb the thing, without falling, and have stood on top of it or you didn't.
Business is hard. Being an entrepreneur is hard. We're prone to the same types of excuses that climbers make. The sale you almost made. The features that almost shipped on time. We make these excuses thinking they are positive re-enforcement but what they re-enforce is mediocre performance.
Another way to look at this is holding yourself as accountable as you would hold any team. How long would you keep a salesperson around that continued to miss the mark? How long would you keep a creative or product team around that failed to ship meaningful work? As a founder and practitioner, I hold a role in my business as well as work on it. Am I performing to the same standard that I would hold an employee to?
2023 was a tough year for many. Almost every business owner we know reported worse numbers than in 2022, my business partner and I included. It's easy to say it was a hard year. But somebody performed last year. Somebody put up better numbers. I don't know what 2024 holds for the economy but even if it bottoms out, there's someone out there that's going to hit their goals. There's someone that's putting up while everyone else is making excuses.
In business winning isn't always beating the year before, but if your goal is to grow then that's what you need to do. If you're a bootstrapper, you also need to be profitable every single year to survive, no excuses. We were profitable, but we didn't hit our growth goal. We could pat ourselves on the back and say were 50% successful or we almost hit our growth goal. But I can't help but look in the mirror and think, put up or shut up dude.
Michael Rispoli
Software Engineer & Creative Technologist
Software Engineer & Creative Technologist