Hi friends,
This week I want to share with you one of the biggest mistakes, I believe, I've been doing for the last couple of years. This mistake has a lot to do with The Trap of Ambitious Goals. In the past, I had set very big goals for myself. Aiming for big, far, and ambitious goals meant I had to do great things, otherwise, I won't get any closer to my goals, or at least I would feel that way.
Earlier this month, I built a tiny chrome extension to solve a personal problem. My plan was to launch it on Product Hunt. I made a list of fancy features to build to make the extension worth sharing. I thought the core functionality wasn't enough. Slowly I got anxious and started to think maybe it's not worth it and I shouldn't waste time on it and focus on building something else instead, something "more valuable". Later that day, I chatted with @joshpitzalis and I was telling him about all the "fancy" features I had in mind when he said: "I think it is good enough, it doesn't need more work. I think it's ready for product hunt"
I wanted to believe him, after all, I also didn't want another zombie project chasing me. So I decided to launch it as it is. I went to ProductHunt, created a post, and scheduled the launch for the next day. Honestly, I didn't expect anyone to notice it. "If it gets more than 10 upvotes, I would be really surprised", I thought to myself.
Long story short, I was wrong, almost about everything. And here is what happened after the launch:
It doesn't seem like much until you think of what could happen if I didn't launch and just sent this project like many others to my cemetery. I have done this mistake SOOO many times already.
It's easy to turn a blind eye to the small low hanging fruit and put all of our efforts and time to go after the big sexy fruit at the top. So if I want to leave you with a piece of advice it's going to be this: Go for the low hanging fruit first, never ditch a project before lunch it or even validate the idea. And even after you do that, consider open-source it and share what you have learned. These little things will help build your audience and personal brand, and maybe these little things will add up to pave the way for other greater things.
Have a great week!
“A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.”
- George S. Patton