The first step is to start | Hacker News Reader

The first step is to start

37signals.com

212 pointsjp_sc26 comments

Strong agreement. You learn a lot more by doing than by fantasizing about doing some day. You'll also get a lot more mileage out of your book (or web) learning with just a little practical experience. I guarantee you, within 2 weeks of hanging out your shingle you'll have a radically different, improved perspective on where your actual business challenges are. (The stupid, detail-oriented mechanics of business like "charge customers' credit cards" and "incorporate" and "do bookkeeping" paralyzed me for so long prior to actually starting. It turns out that these matter so much less than e.g. marketing it isn't even funny, for my business at least.)

My one suggestion: get a mentor. Plumb them for advice. Thomas has taught me more about consulting (beginning with "You know, you could do consulting.") in three minute chunks than I managed to learn in my entire life, even in six years while employed by businesses which did consulting.

I hate to admit it, but trepidation at the "incorporate and do bookkeeping" part is exactly my roadblock. Paralyzing is an apt description. What was it that finally got you around it?

You could just not do it.

I've been in business for the better part of 10 years without incorporating or doing bookkeeping beyond a quick 20 minute Excel session at tax time.

My theory is that as long as everybody else keeps good books, I don't have to. The bank has just as much interest in remembering what happened to my money as I do, and frankly they're better at it than me. When I need to know, I look it up.

I love this. I've been trained as an accountant, so the bookkeeping, legal, sales side feels like a breeze. Its the 'I have to build something awesome' that cripples me!

Only reinforces the point of the article. Like he said at the end: "In fact, the projects where there is doubt are the ones to pursue." Those projects are different for everyone, you just have to jump in.

I probably shouldn't be admitting it here, but I quit my job, got started and the whole bookkeeping, accounting thing is still a mess. But everything else, getting customers and delivering them what they need is going flawlessly. I am much more stressed out than I was when I was working at a job, but this stress feels good in a strange sort of way.

I need to get my paperwork side of things in order. Any recommendations for a good bookkeeper/accountant in Bay Area?

Basically my point is that you don't have to have everything aligned and perfect to get started. I think there will always be chaos and a bit of disorder, but you just have to keep ploughing through and things will fall in place.

What activities do you recommend to "just start" marketing?

Your users have problems. Write about solutions. Eventually you'll want to scale this, but for now, start writing.

For example, if I hypothetically ran an innovative photo sharing site, I might assume that there exists, somewhere, a busy mother who wants to get baby's first steps to her grandparents who live in another state, and I would list up every possible thing I could think of that would frustrate that mother, and then I would start knocking them off the list. Bonus points if I actually knew a busy mother. (I do, but if I didn't, I'd probably find one.)

Then, after putting that up on my site, I might ask my busy mother who she reads. Oh, mommy blogs? Wonderful. (And a little terrifying -- those of you who work with mommy blogs understand.) So I'd try to learn a bit more about mommy bloggers, use Peldi's approach for emailing, and try to convince them that their readers will have even more loving, peaceful relations with the inlaws if only they had read what I have to say. Maybe they would be interested in a guest post, or in linking to my pre-existing series on how to solve their issues with getting baby photos to grandma?

Note that I could do this well in advance of actually having a photo sharing site running if I were so inclined. And I could do it for audiences not limited to mothers. And I could probably get someone other than me to do it, too.

The best way to start marketing is to start listening to anyone who will talk to you.

Start with a list of needs or gaps that you feel you understand or are very interested in and then talk to anyone you can about them. During the conversation try take the person through the experience of the problem you are trying to solve. See how quickly they get it, or if you have to illustrate that it is a problem or need. Then ask them how they might go about solving the problem. Now bounce your solutions off of them and get their take. Now challenge your ideas with theirs, did something better emerge? Do this enough and it is called upstream marketing. If you want to get crazy, try to pick solutions that have an obvious way of making money.

If you don't have any ideas that you are in love with yet, start a bug list. Simply write down everything you find that bugs you, no matter how trivial or personal. Do this for at least two weeks to get comfortable with challenging the way things are. I find people's bug lists start getting interesting when longer than 100 entries. Pick your favorite bugs and brainstorm them into opportunities (solutions) then start talking to people. By all means, brainstorm with friends or business partners.

I typically talk to my friends about ideas first, usually over cocktails. Even my best friends are still pretty biased towards being supportive though, so they are just the first sounding board. It is important to follow up with strangers or other people not unreasonably incentivized to be nice to you. I used to hate going to parties with people I did not know, but now I find I am liking them more and more because I can learn a new perspective on what I ideas I am researching at the moment.

A great technique for finding people I had to force myself to get into is cold calling. I use linked in, my personal network and even just e-mail people on their contact pages to get leads. I am still surprised at the number of people who take me up on coffee or lunch for the promise of a discussion about something they are interested in. As a bonus I have met some great mentors this way.

So -- will you be my mentor?

And the next step is to finish what you start, no matter what. Andre LaMothe, founder of xgamestation, a video game development kit company, and author numerous programming books including "Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus", describes how he motivates himself. I've always found this quote inspirational when I lose steam on a project:

"Hmm, that's a hard question. I guess that the best answer is that by the time you are old enough to understand that you are NOT going to be a rock start or a unique, beautiful snowflake, it will be too late. Lack of motivation fundamentally comes from fear -- you are afraid to do things since you don't think you can do them internally -- which is 99% true.

However, the good news is that if you REALLY try to do anything, there is nothing that you can't do within reason of course. So my suggestion is simple and basically how I start anyone I mentor -- start with ANYTHING that you want to do, something small. Then start it, work on it everything single day until its done, I don't care if you are sick, haev to work, goto school, your girlfriend wants to do something, whatever, just work on it everyday -- at some point you will get to a point where you find your own mental limits, this is usually the point where every single person quits and then sells themselves the bullshit concept, "I could finish it if I wanted"-- this is crap, the fact is THEY can't finish it, but this is just the moment of transformation -- now, here is where you are going to triple your efforts, read whatever you need to read, and finish it, no matter what -- And if you don't think this advice is true I have heard it personally from every single iconic computer person on the planet -- the key to success is so simple -- just finish everything.

You will never become motivated, until you don't need to become motivated then you will be motivated, hard to explain, but that's the way it works --

Additional, arguement -- what are you doing anyway? If you aren't 10x smarter than everyone now, how will you compete in 10-20 years? Imagine the math, physics, computer science, nanotech, biotech, etc. that will be common then -- thus, you better get crackin! There is so much work to be done and no time to do it -- if you are less than 40 and aren't working at least 15-18 hours a day you are not working enough, you simply can't compete with the best in the world unless you are willing to throttle it that much --

NeCroN.TTL "

As an interesting counterpoint, I often find myself with the exact opposite problem: I start too often. It's to the point now where I have 4 or 5 active side projects, and then I think of something else cool that I want to build... and then it's hard to actually work on and continue with them, especially after the 'fun stuff' of the initial creation is over.

I feel the same way. I am far too often starting a new project, or coming up with new random ideas. I put things aside and have to work hard at finishing them. I think starting is the easiest part, and finishing is the skill that needs to be preached.

I hear you there. I've created a few sites, and hit a point this summer where I asked myself why I was building yet another site. The one I learned by far the most from was the one I completed and had real customers heading to.

Since then, I've really worked hard to focus on the one "startup" I'm involved with. Sometimes it takes some patience to get to the finish line, but once I've crossed it, I've found it can get interesting again.

Same story here. For those who have required skills staring is easy. But then we either lose motivation or start to think about another cool idea. So, for us the opposite (well not really opposite) should be stated - finish what you have already started.

"You probably don’t even know what skills you need, so don’t worry about it. Start with what you already know."

For my first startup, I created the whole site from scratch. I had developed software for years and thought I had a pretty good handle on things.

I did know some things, but was surprised by how many gaps there were in my knowledge. Coding something from the front end all the way to the back was a great way to learn.

That's not to mention the business and legal knowledge I gained. There's so much involved in even getting a small project going, that you can really only learn by doing.

Good advice.

My only word of caution is to know what you're getting into. Programming is hard. It doesn't mean you can't do it, that you shouldn't try, or that starting is hard, it just means that it will take a lot of time and practice to do it well--and beginners tend to underestimate this.

And another thing: if your primary reason for wanting to build a web app is to make money, that's fine, but make sure that you enjoy the process of creating as well. If you end up not enjoying the programming side and seeing it as merely a means to an end, you won't be able to do it well.

Great simple advice. Nike sums it up even shorter with "Just do it." And if you read between the lines, it says "Don't think." I'm not saying don't think at all of course, but one of the biggest things that keeps someone from getting started is overthinking. Overthinking what's needed, how much, how hard, what will happen if this, or that, when's the right time, what if it's a waste of time, and on and on.

Their second piece of advice that they infer in the article is the best way to learn is by doing. Because that's another big obstacle to starting, believing one is not prepared to get something done, and that the person just needs to learn a bit of knowledge before he or she gets started. Just start and learn along the way. How else did we learn how to walk when we were babies?

Is life about repetition and habits? I think so and I think that's the underlying factor to messages that convey "just start doing it" and almost any other self-help type message out there. Get into a routine, figure out what works, goto 10.

It's not a huge secret and it's one of those simple things that people often overlook.

Personally, I like Jerry Seinfeld's method of productivity. Define tasks that contribute to a goal and every day that you contribute, physically mark it off on a calendar.

http://robisit.com/9r

I love the drawing on the right side of the brain reference, one of my favorite books. http://www.drawright.com/

I think this is great advice. Part of perseverance is not letting anyone else tell you what you can not do but even more important is not telling yourself what you cannot do.

This is why many famous creatives are or were heavy alcohol or drug users (it's almost a running joke about journalists). These vices help shut out the critical voices for some people, for a while at least.

What I really liked: "Start with what you already know". I think this is very smart

You have to start if you want to accomplish anything. Never mind you don't have the skill, or it would take too long to come up with something meaningful...

Just do it!

> Don’t worry about what you need to know in order to finish a project, you already have everything you need to start.

Oh. Do worry. Worry much. Because the time you spend down a road that leads nowhere may not be worth what you learn on the way there.

That is a major pain, but the alternative — doing nothing — is an even worse use of your time. If you're fairly competent and resourceful, you're more likely to talk yourself out of doing something than you are to run into a dead end halfway through. And even if you do find that you truly can't finish, does that put you in a worse place than if you'd spent the time watching CSI?

There seem to be two models to success in a field: learn as a youth or learn once you are an adult. These two approaches are equally valid from what I have seen.

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