Do It Wrong Fast - Learn just enough, Apply it, Change it

A few different things all came together for me this morning while I was reading this article from Business Week that I found on Seth's Blog. There's a quote from an academic in there that really made me think about what Rich Schefren has been trumpeting with his new report, The Uncertainty Syndrome.

The quote was to the effect that Godin's books are a good read but they aren't backed by enough research to be proven. In my opinion, I'm glad that his books aren't backed with a whole pile of research (although I'm sure he obviously checks out his stuff before he just willy nilly writes a book on it). If he had time to research it thoroughly and provide lots of charts, graphs, and trend lines, I doubt the principles he's talking about would still be applicable.

In Rich's report, the aforementioned Uncertainty Syndrome, my biggest take-away was the fact that you should do it wrong fast. Only action can create clarity. Sure it's good to have a knowledge of something before you start implementing it, but you certainly don't have to be a world expert. Your goal should be to find something you think would apply well in your business and implement it as quickly as possible. If it doesn't (which it probably won't) you just make adjustments until you get it right. It's easier to keep an object in motion than to get something started from nothing.

If you think about it logically, it makes total sense. You could spend years trying to get something perfect before you launch, be it a website, a store front, or a piece of software. But it's all just hypothetical until you put it into action. Once you do, chances are pretty good that your perfect system isn't perfect and you'll have to make changes anyway. So wouldn't it be better to put up the imperfect website quickly and make the necessary changes along the way?

I've been trying to live by this philosophy for a while now. When we started Sprinkler Daddy, we didn't wait until we knew every in and out of underground sprinklers before we launched this past May. We found out the basics that we needed to know, put up the website, and learned what we didn't know along the way. There's always going to be situations that come up that I don't have an answer for, but that's why I surround myself with people that have the answers. My uncle has been in the irrigation for over 30 years and he still doesn't have all the answers, but that's ok, that's why they invented the Internet.

We're trying to take a similar trial by fire approach with our new online store at www.skweddingwebsite.com. Sure I've got a bunch of material coming from Stompernet this week (hopefully it gets here by then, been waiting a while for it) that's supposed to help me with the ins and outs of setting up an online store and making it profitable. I could have waited for it to come and then started building the store, but that just delays the inevitable. I know enough to get it functioning now, I can worry about optimizing it later.

So what are you putting off that you should probably be implementing right now instead? My challenge for you today is to find something you've been putting off and put it into action right now. Even if you fail, at least you know and you can stop thinking about it and move onto the next thing.