Pre-empt reality – success requires it

Entrepreneurship and startups are a lot like starting out in your career. People want you to have experience before they will hire you. It’s that ironic circular reference in which it is impossible to get the job, to get the experience required until we’ve got the experience – right? hmmm.

Often startup businesses need a lot of people before the idea, concept or thing simply works. Kind of like email or fax machines. They only become useful when everyone has one…. or at least some form of critical mass in which we can exchange things of value. Aside from the fact this proves that the most powerful element in any business mix is distribution, it also indicates we all have a chasm to cross before success can become a reality.

So how do we cross the chasm? How do we make success a reality?

We must preempt it.

We must preempt our future reality. As though it already exists. We must talk and act as if it has already happened. Not just internally, not just convincing ourselves, but to all of those whose paths we cross day to day in startup land. We have to sell the future, before it arrives, as if it’s already happened.

Sometimes we might have to use ‘creative language’ which somewhat stretches the truth (our current reality). We ought not feel bad – every successful entrepreneur in history has done this. Every successful entrepreneur in the future will do this. It’s just a necessary element in creating the future. It’s not lying, it’s part of the creation process. Screw it – sell the sizzle and make it real. By the time the people catch up to the today’s reality – you’ve already created the future version.

Bill Gates sold MS DOS before he even built it. He said to IBM – “we have what you need.” Despite the fact it was metaphysical at that stage.

Generating media and interest in your start up is one of the areas where this must happen. Whether it’s in traditional media, the blogosphere, or other means, people don’t want to cover us until we’ve had success. What they fail to realise is that their coverage is the thing which often starts the success. Then people who read about our brand, website or widget say, “Wow, I better check that out”. They believe in ‘the people’. If other people are embracing it, it justifies them checking it out. it’s the wisdom of crowds, as far as people are concerned, we only count when other people care.

When people ask about your startup and want the obligitory progress report – paint the most positive picture possible. Use creative language that makes it sound bigger, better and closer. No – use language that says it has already arrived. Make the future your present reality.

2 thoughts on “Pre-empt reality – success requires it

  1. You are spot on. When I started the Sydney Writers’ Centre three years ago, I called it “Australia’s leading centre for writing training”. Indeed, in my mind, it was!

    Over time, that idea morphed into reality and we are now most certainly Australia’s leading centre for writing training and have become the “go to” provider for individuals and corporations.

    Apart from helping consumers create an appropriate perception of our business, it also forced us to become what we said we were.

    So I agree: Make your future your present reality. And truly believe in it. It’s a very powerful thing to do.

  2. It’s funny – a friend of mine just posted on his startup blog about doing exactly this:

    http://www.imbuildingastartup.com/?p=113

    Him and his partner went out marketing what their company “provides” before they had anything ready and were taken very seriously by companies that supply to huge companies like Rockwell Collins and Honeywell and that make millions of dollars a year.

    I think practice is good for 2 reasons:

    1. It’s good practice at marketing

    2. It puts the company under a more defined timetable because they also have to meet other teams demands

    Grey

Leave a Reply