What Are You Building?

This post is for my business owner entrepreneur Ripplers.

There are a couple of adages that I've started to apply in my life and work.

Maybe they'll help you too.

Do one thing very well. Self-explanatory but super hard for entrepreneurs.

Perfect is the enemy of good. When building something new, good will always be good enough.

Spend time in your own head. Mediation and long walks have helped me immensely.

Finish what you start. If you aren't committed to seeing "it" all the way through it's not worth doing "it" in the first place.

Keep the inner belly fire stoked. Remind yourself constantly why you are doing what you are doing.

Define what success looks like for yourself. No one else's definition matters but your own.

So if you were to use today to reevaluate where you are right now in your entrepreneurial path, how satisfied are you with where you are headed? Do you have enough time, resources (capital, experience, people), and drive (supercritical ingredient) to see yourself through to success?

For one of my software ventures that telemetry looks like this:

Success for me meant closing that first customer.

Selling to those first 100 customers.

Reaching my revenue target which is 5X where I am right now.

Achieving scalability.

Building something cool that people want to use.

Eventually, being in a position to hand off to someone I trust or be acquired so I can go do something else?

Because being an entrepreneur can be one of the hardest and loneliest jobs in the world. So most people who aren't entrepreneurs won't get this, as entrepreneurs we are often flying way above the crowd without the luxury of a safety net to catch ourselves. It's scary.

If you are truly committed to being a successful business owner or entrepreneur, remember what you are building matters.

Otherwise, if it doesn't then you better go get a job.

Ripple On!!!

ICYMI: Spark