Marita’s Blog

Seth Godin blogs everyday. I know that within a 24-hour period, there will be a new blog post from him.

But it wasn’t always like that. If you go through his archives, you’ll see that he only blogged 50 times in his first year, twice with only one post a month! It wasn’t only until a few years later that he began religiously blogging everyday.

Every Grammy award-winning artist had to sing their first note or touch an instrument for the first time, Richard Branson ran a free student magazine for 5 years before selling records to customers, and Bill Gates wrote computer games before creating himself bigger projects to tackle.

Sure, some Grammy award-winning artists began their careers at two, Branson left school at 15 for his venture, and at 13, Bill Gates had only started being a teenager before giving coding a shot. But, Susan Boyle is only receiving worldwide recognition now at 48, Ray Kroc was 59 when he purchased the McDonald’s franchise, and here are another 8 entrepreneurs over the age of 80.

One of the most challenging parts of a project is the start* - taking the leap of faith in yourself to tackle a new project. Once you commit your word, time and energy towards a venture though, momentum grows and you are fueled by that momentum to continue.

So start somewhere! Be the one who asks all the questions. Find out what you need to get your project going. Write out your goal and how you’re going to get there. Work out what you need to get the plan to work. Learn the instrument. Begin your venture. Start coding.

(*The most challenging part of course, is to keep going - but that’s another story.)

Roller coaster rides:
1. Have absolutely no logical pace to them. One minute they’re on cruise control, the next, centrifugal force is pulling your breakfast around.
2. Start off slowly.
3. Break away quickly.
4. Drop suddenly.
5. Take their time on the climb.
6. Accelerate abruptly.
7. Oscillate. One minute you’re up, the next minute you’re down.
8. Follow a path.
9. Seem to follow no path.
10. Reach high highs.
11. Are on the ground.
12. Make you feel like you’re flying.
13. Have you feeling like you’re safer than when driven by your younger brother.
14. Are so scary you scream your lungs out.
15. Aren’t that scary, but it’s fun to scream your lungs out anyway.
16. Splash you into the river.
17. Take you through a galaxy of darkness.
18. Allow you to sightsee.
19. Have you closing your eyes so tightly you cannot see a thing.
20. Take you on a loop-de-loop.

I liken my favourite projects to being on a roller coaster ride.

One minute I’m down:
I really don’t feel like getting out of bed.
I can’t believe they just pulled out! It’s going to bring the entire project crashing down!
Why did I send that email? How can Fred respect me now?
Why didn’t I prepare this business plan earlier? Now I’m not ready, and I’m not going to do very well in this pitch.
… That’s the acceleration down the coaster trail.

The next minute, I’m ecstatic:
I can’t believe how amazing that meeting was! I don’t even know what to do to celebrate I’m so excited! I want to scream! Jump! Yell! But I’ll keep my cool…
I’m so inspired by my mentor! There’s so many things that I can see are possible now!
Did he mean - could he possibly mean that he wants to work with me?
Wow! I just negotiated a deal that saves us $5000! I’m good!
… That’s the car speeding up the coaster trails with the momentum from the downward acceleration.

Then there’s moments of coasting, where you think you’ve got it all handled. You breathe and relax a bit, because you’re assured that the project is going okay and moving forwards. These are the zen moments.

Whatever project you take on, there’s going to be ups, there’s going to be downs, and there’s going to be moments of coasting. While projects that coast are easy; the more ups, and the more downs, the more you’ll learn.