READY, AIM ... FIRE!

I remember the following expression from the late 80's and early 90's: "Ready, Fire ... Aim." It was an oft repeated mock of many half thought out, bird brained ideas or ventures that many American corporations were pursuing. The irony is that most of the people that were chanting that phrase were employees of the companies that were pursuing those very same bird brained ideas! Worse, many of those employees were the managers that were responsible for making sure that the whole team ‘fell in line’ behind the less than perfect schemes.

Fast forward to the year 2011: Corporate America continues to downsize and outsource. They are lean and mean, but want to be leaner and meaner. You see the writing on the wall, you know the day is coming where you will either be outsourced or you will get another person’s job dumped on you … and you are already doing two jobs as it is! You think ‘there’s got to be a better way’! You decide want to be an entrepreneur, you want to be your own boss, you want to set your own schedule; you’re sick of answering to ‘the man’; you’ve got a great idea that you want to pursue … so what do you do?

Most of you are thinking ‘you go for it’! But that’s precisely the problem. Your word choice is ‘you go for it’; not ‘I go for it.’ It’s so very easy to tell another person “go for it”, but when it comes down to making decisions about your own life and future … well, that’s a slightly different story. Often times it’s a story that ends right there … until the next ‘great idea’ that you don’t pursue … and then the one after that.

But, for a few goal oriented individuals … the truly entrepreneurial ones out there, you were actually saying ‘I go for it’. You personalized it, you took ownership and in your head or possibly out loud you said “I GO FOR IT!” You don’t wait to check with your accountant, you don’t wait for the ‘right time’ or ‘perfect market conditions’; or for feedback to come in from the market test … you don’t wait for permission from your momma … (to steal a phrase) you “Just Do It!”

You set your sites on the target, you know the general direction you want to go in and you have a general idea of what you will need to do to get your idea to fruition. You know you’ll need a website, but maybe you are not strong in web design … so along the way you either learn web design or you team with someone who already knows it. Perhaps you think you need social media to really get momentum behind your idea, but Twitter, Facebook and mass emailing is foreign to you … so you decide to quit right? Not no, but HELL NO! This is your baby, you’re not going to quit now. You find an ally that can help, or you contract someone or you learn it yourself.

Why … Why would you do all this? Why would you set off on a path pursuing what turns out to be a half thought out idea, pouring your blood, sweat and tears into something that is probably going to fail? It’s for the same reasons that kids always try to do the seemingly impossible. It’s because they want to and because nobody told them that they couldn’t (and sometimes it’s because someone told them they couldn’t).

Since my wife and I don’t let our kids bring their electronic distractions (DS, Phones, etc.) into the restaurants they’re forced to entertain themselves. So they try to make due with what’s around them. Sometimes it’s stacking flimsy sugar or sweet & low packets; sometimes it’s trying to catch a spinning nickel on a very slippery glass table top. Both of these things are possible under the right conditions, but difficult nonetheless. Their pursuit of success is endless though; they don’t stop trying until the food comes. I am always amazed as to why they continue to try the catch the spinning nickel under their index finger. The slippery table, slick coin edges, rapidly moving tiny object, dark restaurant … hmmm sounds challenging, a lot like starting your own business.