4 practical principles to build anything
These are important pillars that sustain the building process.
I want to build something. Something that will develop my skills, help others and leave a digital trail of my abilities.
I’ve known this for a while. And instead of actually getting started with building, I keep writing about it.
Ironic, right? That’s exactly what I’m doing here, writing this post. So, where’s the building?
The building will come through sharing what I believe, is the most important discovery to building something new.
It starts small.
Every building started with the first brick. The foundations are built before the main building. Decorations are added last.
Oftentimes, the vision of the building isn’t possible in reality. Changes are made to accommodate for this, rather than scrapping everything and calling it quits.
What can we learn from this?
The first brick matters.
Whatever you choose to build, you need to take that first step. Ironically, that first step is often the step we overthink the most.
Don’t. Just get started.
Suppose you want to build a SaaS project. Striving to build a whole web app with no previous experience will stress you out.
Start with creating a small script, a macro that you can attach to existing software. Maybe it’s just a python file that sends emails of your to do lists.
People who build mansions started with building smaller houses. You have to do the same.
Your foundation needs to be strong.
The wise man built his house upon the rock.
It’s one thing to take the first step. It’s another to set the foundation to take bigger steps. That’s where I’m at now.
It’s easy to keep reloading the dopamine boost of taking the same little steps that feel easy. It’s hard to actually address the bottlenecks that are preventing you from going further.
Writing online isn’t hard for me anymore. I don’t fear the blank page. But I do fear promoting my work and selling my work to other people. Not to mention, I’m not the best at sticking to a posting schedule.
I can keep pretending that these aren’t real issues. Or, I can address these issues, knowing that they will help when I start to approach entrepreneurship.
Address your weak points. You can’t build on a weak foundation.
Adapt and marinate.
Changes are inevitable when building. But it can be hard to find a good middle ground when approaching them.
Make too few changes and your project won’t adjust well to new discoveries. Make too many changes and you’re left with a project that is unclear and cannot stand on it’s own.
My approach is simple: change 1 thing and let it marinate.
It’s easy to think that changing is doing. It gives you a sense of satisfaction, similar to the satisfaction you get when you tell people your goals before they happen.
That satisfaction is artificial. You will start to think that changing is the way to make progress, but real progress is made overtime.
The person who does the same action over a long period of them is generally more successful that the person who changes their actions over time.
Writing regularly over a few years will make you a much better writer than the person who dabbled with writing, filming, editing, knitting, crocheting, singing, dancing...
Doing requires action, not thought experiments.
Marination needs time. You can decide how long is worth committing, but my advice is to commit at least 6 months to any big change and 30 days for smaller ones.
It’s enough time to see results overtime and it gives you more data points for future decisions.
Don’t be too attached to the vision.
Change can only occur if you lose your attachment to how you want things to be. You have to be willing to let things blossom into what they are.
Oftentimes, the vision you wanted in theory, is not what it looks like in reality.
Making a lot of money as a full-time YouTuber sounds amazing on paper, but it’s not all fun and games when your income is tied directly to how people view you. It’s also a LOT of work; there’s a reason many full-time creators are pivoting to other ventures.
The main thing is to listen to the signals. See how you feel at a given point. Don’t try to strive for more if you don’t need more. Don’t try to push your luck.
What we truly desire is found in the gratitude we have for the small things, not in the pursuit for bigger things.
There’s beauty in simplicity.
Writing this post made me realise something.
Whilst I want to build something new, what I really desire is a challenge. Something that stretches a certain aspect of myself.
Writing online used to be that challenge. Forcing myself to share my thoughts, no matter how raw they were. It really shut down my perfectionist mindset.
Nowadays, it’s not that hard. Give me a strong headline and I can get at least 1000+ words done in 20 minutes.
Ask me to sell my knowledge as an eBook to the one audience that I’m scared of? Now that’s a challenge.
It’s time I addressed my fear of promoting and selling.
Stay tuned to find out how that goes.
Very insightful. Thanks for sharing 👍