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Always release your product before it is ready.

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Movement, not Planning.

Want to be successful? Get your product or service out there now, not after you’ve refined it and made it good. The MBA programs are wrong. Get moving.

Facebook sucked when it first went live and changed almost daily.

Google was a bare bones search engine called BackRub in 1996 and was still simplistic when it became Google in September 1998.

The Denver “T-Rex” redo of the entire highway system was 25% completed and open for traffic before the design was even completed.

The only way to learn how to run a four-minute mile is to first run something much slower, in public.

To learn to ride a bike, first, fall off.

Committed Movement – It’s never how good your plan is that counts, but how committed you are to moving on the bad plan you’ve got.

Purposeful Direction – We don’t need to know HOW we’re getting to our objective, we just need to know what our objective is, and the next few steps in the right direction to get there. Purposeful Direction is not about having things figured out first, but simply knowing with utter clarity where you want to end up.

Committed Movement In a Purposeful Direction is more critical to success than anything else.

There is a fundamental lesson about life and business in the above statement, and how we take that lesson on board makes us either very successful, very average, or a real shipwreck.

Successful people understand that planning is like a rudder; it’s useless without movement. Highly successful people have a very clear, transformational understanding of the relationship between movement and the rudder.

If you get your relationship right between these two, it will transform your life and your business as well. If you don’t, you’ll stay grounded on your sandbar and wonder why your life never had the impact you’ve always known it can.

The idea of massive pre-planning before you start seems to be a very sound practice, but only in concept and in business school. The problem is it just doesn’t match up with the reality of what actually makes for a successful business.

In the last three years I have watched four different companies go through the whole focus group/product development/perfect rollout process that most MBA programs and books about success would tout as the right way to do things. They all failed. I’ve seen others become successful by just getting moving in a small way like Facebook, Google, eBay, the sticky note, the television, the car, the internet, the steam engine, and all parents, all of which had a better chance of success by releasing the product before it was ready then by perfecting it first.

A controlled experiment in the real world
The key is to do it with very few customers who love you and want to work with you to make it what it will someday become. Reality is a much better laboratory for business than the laboratory. Customers are a much better focus group than a focus group. And a small rollout to the faithful is much less expensive and more informative then the balloons and parade approach.

We went through many iterations of paid workshops and mastermind concepts for three and half years before we arrived at 3to5 Clubs, which are now spreading on four continents. But we did it in small groups where perfection wasn’t necessary and everyone of the faithful were served with our existing but under-developed product.

Speed, not Planning
Success is much more closely related to Speed of Execution than to in-depth planning, because most planning is done in a vacuum prior to actually producing anything. Only after the plan hits the real world do we find out that it doesn’t work in that real world.

In the face of that reality and all the evidence we have that massive pre-planning is a waste of time, we keep trying. We can’t help ourselves. Hope springs eternal. In the meantime the Facbooks, Googles, and T-Rexs of the world are in their boats running flat out and heading for open water while we’re still trying to decide how to build the rudder.

Man has yet to devise a great way to plan in the absence of movement. The painstaking detailed analysis we are all taught to do before we move is almost always of little value because it never works out the way we had hoped. And as a result it never saves us the time and money it was supposed to. Instead it usually costs us precious time getting started, puts us behind someone else who has decided to get moving, and creates soaring costs down the road.

Practice, not Perfection
Always roll out your product or service long before it is ready, before your website is done (we only had a holding page for the first 18+ months). Just do it in a controlled but very real and “live” environment where the feedback you get is from real live bullets – people deciding to pay with real money and giving you feedback on how to get better.

Get out of the lab and into the real world. Tom Watson, founder of IBM said, “Test fast. Fail Fast. Adjust Fast.” I would say get out into the real world and just keep practicing to get better all the time.

What Do You Want to Be Known For?

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An empowering vision.

What are you building with your business? Do you know? If not, it’s never too late to get this answer. Stop for a moment and get it, because every decision will fall from this one if you have it answered. People who try to make money rarely make very much of it. People who answer this question understand it is where significance begins.

We sometimes confuse what is good for us with what works for big business. We see Giant Corporation, Incorporated focused on return on investment (ROI) to it’s shareholders and think that we should do that. They are a lousy example of what you want to be known for. They have a legal responsibility to focus on making money, we don’t. And I can tell you that people who focus on something bigger than making money always make more of it.

What do you want to be known for?

And it’s even true with a very few Giant Corp. companies. As Raj Sisodia found in his book Firms of Endearment , 28 of the Fortune 500 have declared to their shareholders that they are about something bigger than making money – they want to be know for something else. You would think that might distract them from making money, but you would be wrong.

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collin’s identified 11 companies that beat the S&P 500 profit standard by at least 300%. Raj’s 28 Giant Corporations that focused instead on something bigger than making money do 1,072% better than the average S&P 500 company.

This relationship between focusing on something bigger than making money and actually making a lot is even more clear with small businesses. Why?

Making money is not an empowering vision.

People make money for two reasons:

1) Survival – survival is a very strong instinct. It is not surprising that most people make just enough money to pay their bills. And the only way that they can motivate themselves to make more is to constantly increase their lifestyle so they can ensure there is always more money going out than coming in. Staying in this Cycle of Poverty, even when you’re making millions, is a great way to ensure you will always be motivated only by survival.

I have a former client who lives that way. His house is beautiful and his cars are gorgeous, and he doesn’t sleep at night. He is in survival mode all the time. He bought the 80’s lie “He who dies with the most toys wins”, and is a hostage to his business and his lifestyle.

2)Significance – An empowering vision – People who see money as a means to an end that is bigger than the toys it can buy are much more likely to make a lot more of it.

You should have as the objective of your work to move from SURVIVAL right through SUCCESS (the imposter of toys) to SIGNIFICANCE.

What do you want to be known for?

I address this in Making Money Is Killing Your Business. Answer that question and you’re likely to get up tomorrow a lot more motivated regardless of the economic climate. And you’re likely to be a lot more successful because you have committed movement in a purposeful direction.

Get out of my way. I have somewhere I have to be.

It’s a lot more motivating than, “I made 6% more this year.”

What do you want to be known for?

Wouldn’t it be great if…

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Random Hope is a lousy business strategy.

Chapter Six in my next book, Bad Plans Carried Out Violently, is about Conation, the most important business word you’ve never heard. Its antonym is just as obscure and just as critical for you to know – velleity.

Our whole community of business owners use this phrase all the time:

You get what you intend, not what you hope for.

Nothing could describe the above better than two of the 1,000 most obscure words in the English language – conation and velleity (vel-lee-ity).

Conation is “Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction”. The dictionary says its the desire plus the volition at the same time. I know I want to do it because I already am. I don’t need to desire it and get all motivated. I just do it because I want it.

Velleity is the desire with no intention of ever doing anything about it. It’s the exact opposite of conation. Wouldn’t it be nice if things worked out better next year? Wouldn’t it be nice if I only worked half as much as I do now? Would it be nice if… that’s velleity.

What’s the difference between a visionary and a dreamer? A visionary is already doing it (conation) and a dreamer is talking about how nice it would if… (velleity).

You get what you intend, not what you hope for.
CONATION < – – – – – – – – – > VELLEITY

Conate.

Commitment is the Engine of Your Business, Not Motivation

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Committed people make history.

Imagine building a boat without an engine or a sail. We call that a raft. You could build a gorgeous multi-million dollar 60’ cruiser, but if there is no engine, it’s still just a raft. And if you actually want to have some control over where you’re going, drifting around aimlessly in a raft isn’t the best way to get there. Or the fastest. Or the safest. You get the idea. You need an engine.

In 30 years of building my own businesses and in watching other people build hundreds more, I can tell you without reservation that the foundational thing that separates the successful business owner from the always-struggling business owner is commitment. The bigger their engine of commitment is, the better chance they have at getting where they want to go. And the quicker they are likely to get there.

Motivation is not Commitment.

That’s an important distinction. I’ve seen plenty of people pound their chests, do their chants and mistake “motivation” for commitment.

I’m not a big fan of motivational stuff. Motivation too often masquerades as vision, but is almost always based in emotionalism – seeing the promised land on a map, hearing the music, dancing the dance, hugging somebody, then going home and settling back into our regular routine.

So motivation is too often based on how I feel, not on whether I’m committed to really doing something. Commitment is unaffected by feeling, and only uses feelings to help understand what has already happened. After all, emotions are a much better indicator of what has already happened then what might happen in the future.

We should be responding to business more like a stream running down hill. It doesn’t need to get emotional to get moving and when it hit’s a beaver dam, it doesn’t get emotional, either. It just turns left and keeps finding a way downhill. A stream has quiet resolve.

Commitment is demonstrated not by excitement, or by spending time in the office, or even by dollars invested, but by full on abandonment to getting to the goal, and daily plodding to get there. Commitment is much closer related to steely, quiet resolve than to ginning up the “right” feelings.

Quiet resolve is committed movement in a purposeful direction.

Do you have quiet resolve to get where you want to go, no matter what you run into along the way? If you do, you’ve got a great shot at going from survival right through success to significance, both in your business and in your life.

Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction

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Conation

We’ve all heard that extraordinary people are just ordinary people who have made extraordinary decisions. It think it’s even more simple than that. Extraordinary people are those who understand that Movement is the Master, and planning is just its humble servant with a small “s”.

While the rest of us are building a perfect plan in an ivory tower, the successful person has already pulled up anchor, hoisted the sails and left the harbor for their rendezvous with destiny. They understand it isn’t about the plan, but about the destination, and that the plan will unfold as they go. They just need to know two things: where they are and where they want to go, and their plan is to do whatever they need to do in the middle to get there.

The rest of us just get nervous at this whole approach. In fact we’re much more comfortable with knowing exactly what the dayto-day activity is and what each day holds going forward. We’re so committed to safety, stability and a perfect map for daily life that we really don’t care what the destination is as long the journey along the way to nowhere holds no surprises.

“I don’t know where I’m going, but I know exactly how I’m going to get there.”

We need to stop worshiping the planning servant and start focusing on the Master – movement.

Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction

Just because you’re going flat out doesn’t mean you’re going the right direction.

If you don’t have your hand constantly on the steering wheel to control the helm and make ongoing corrections, all the movement in the world isn’t going to help you. It will likely just create chaos as you crash into things and bounce off of them. We need Purposeful Direction – a clear understanding of the end game (not the plan, but the end game – there is a big difference!).

Successful people get moving fast but have a very strong understanding of where they are going. They aren’t just committed to movement, but to movement in a purposeful direction. They have a clear view of the destination. But successful people focus on the end game, not on planning. They didn’t become successful by planning the whole journey out, but by simply having clarity about where they are, where they want to end up, and a complete commitment to get there at any cost.

Do you have Committed Movement in a Purposeful Direction?

The Single Most Important Question in Business

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…is the one we ask least often.

As responsible business owners, we invest a lot of time answering the “what” question. What will I sell? What should my price be? What kind of marketing should I do?

We find “how” intriguing as well – How will I find clients? How will I make ends meet this month? And we’re even okay with “who” (who is my ideal client) or “where” (where do I locate, advertise, network, etc.?).

All of these questions – who, what, where and how can be just plain fun to play around with. Why? (hint – this is a pretty important question) – Because they are largely theoretical questions. I can answer ALL of them brilliantly and do absolutely nothing – frozen in my tracks but feeling as if I’ve made great progress. But we’re really just playing office again. Merely doing complex (but easy) things that make us feel important and impress others.

The 2nd most important question in business (see last week’s post) is “when”. We avoid it like the plague because when we attach it to all the other questions (who, what, where, and how), we suddenly lose control of our future. Instead of managing our plans, we are now managed by our Plan, required to take action and move forward when we’d rather sit around thinking about it and just play office some more.

But the biggest, most important question in business is avoided even more then “when”. And it’s the most important question for determining our success.

Why?

On the most strategic level, if you don’t know why you’re in business, you’re going to fold when the going gets tough. And on the most tactical level, if you don’t know why you want to buy that snazzy new printer, you’re going to wonder why you can’t make money.

The “why” question should be attached to every other question you need to answer. What should I sell (why should I sell it)? How will I find clients (why do I want those clients)? Where should I locate (why is this a great place to be?)

And most importantly, “why” even needs to be attached to “when”. When do I want to be at 100 clients (why then and not later/earlier)? When do I want to have a fully mature business (why then and not later/earlier)?

When we ask why, we have a better chance of making decisions that are all aligned with our long-term plan (asking “why” makes us get a long term plan). When we avoid asking why, we make individual decisions in individual vacuums and wonder how we ended up right where we started at the beginning of the year. The result – a business going many directions at once and ultimately going nowhere.

Why gives us clarity of purpose.

If you won’t ask why, don’t bother with the other questions. They are all mechanical questions and don’t matter outside of “why”.

Why are you in business? Why do you do business they way you do? Why do you think it will take you 20 years to grow a mature business (why not 5)? Why do my customers buy from me? Why am I stuck at the same revenue as last year?

Why don’t you ask why more often?

Seth Godin wrote a book called The Dip in which he contends we quit when we shouldn’t and don’t when we should. If we asked why more often in business, Godin, wouldn’t have had a book to write. Answering why helps wake us up to stupid habits that aren’t helping us but just make us comfy (or impressive). And more importantly, answering why we’re in business gives us the motivation to push through the dips, to move from survival, through success, to significance.

Every time you ask a who, what, where or how question, ask “when”, then ask “why”. You’ll make more money in less time. Why do you think that might be true?