Looking back, I’ve never felt like the meaningful progress I made in pursuit of a goal was through preparation, planning, thinking and not just sitting down and doing. It’s not that preparation isn’t important, because it is, but knowing when the benefits of preparation will be outweighed by the experience gained from staring is equally important.

When you start doing something new you’re probably going to suck at it and there’s no way around that. Maybe you have some relevant skills, but that will only help in a small way to shorten your journey towards whatever goal you’ve set for yourself. Success is primarily measured by what you can deliver, in the end preparation and planning are only in support of that deliverable.

I sometimes used to think, “I could totally be doing a better job than that guy”, but the hard hard truth is I couldn’t. I couldn’t because that person is already doing it, they’re already a step ahead. They’ve gathered the supplies, planned and executed while I was just thinking about it. When all is said and done the people who are successful are those who have hustled and worked the hardest because they have successes and failures to show for it, both of which are extremely valuable.

You can think and plan all you want but there’s no substitute for just starting. Chances are your vision, project goals, or the world around you will change in ways you couldn’t have planned so find the minimum viable path to execution and execute.