Lesson 1: Don’t Overthink Things
Overthinking things can be crippling to almost any business of any size. It may sound reckless, but I believe a lot of my wins in life were a result of having a “shoot first, aim later” mentality. On the same note, this mentality is also responsible for a lot of my losses as well. However, I believe that’s okay, because it’s all about successfully FAILING FAST. I learned this lesson as a child while learning how to ride a bicycle. When kids learn how to ride a bike, they typically use one of two methods – the slow method of using training wheels that might take weeks, or the faster ‘learn as you go’ method that took me less than an hour. I couldn’t have been more than 5 years old when my uncle taught me how to ride a bicycle. He took me to the top of the hill at my elementary school. With no hesitation, no training wheels, and a slight push, I made it all of the way to the bottom on my first try. I couldn’t have been more excited on the way down! Of course, when the hill bottomed out, I crashed head over heels (I still have the scars to prove it). When you start heading downhill on a bike, you have no choice but to figure it out — that is why the strategy works. Although I left a little beaten up, I returned home with the ability to ride a bicycle in less than an hour. The ability to turbocharge my path to a win has been due to this simple way of thinking.The dangers of overthinking — paralysis by analysis
The more you think about “if” you should do something and “how” you’re going to do it, the more you’ll talk yourself out of doing it. This often holds people back from actually “doing” something. Suddenly, inaction starts to make a lot of sense. The first company I built, which I consider a successful company, was called Screameleons. It was an ecommerce site that sold chameleons. Yes, the small lizards that changed colors.