The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

August 29Why We Must Sail

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it,—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.—The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858)

Many entrepreneurs lie somewhere on a spectrum of behaviors that some find hard to appreciate. It is not uncommon for entrepreneurs to look for things that are broken in order to fix them. But if they are not broken, they'll just paint over them to fulfill the need to keep doing something, always, moving, ooh, here's another great idea …

The tendency to “sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it” is both a blessing and perhaps a disease.

It's a blessing because nothing happens until something is imagined, made, tested, fixed, packaged, shipped, promoted, and sold. It's a disease because we like new projects, new ideas, new directions, new technologies, and we grow tired of what we start right at about the 70 percent finished point.

Perfect is not the enemy of the entrepreneur; distraction is.

Think about your most important projects right now. What's the end game for each? What's the long-term value? How do they support the big picture? How much team buy-in and support do you have? Are you still excited about the prospect of completing them?

Sail, do not drift or lie at anchor—you were built to be at sea, but maybe you should ...