Don't start a business

No, we shouldn’t do that. It’s such a big thing with no clear way to start, and no clear way to end. There’s a really big chance we could waste a significant amount of financial, temporal and emotional resources on it. It’s too uncertain and adds a whole lot of life complications to it, it takes a lot of organising, registrations, financing, commitment to something for which a future which is unproven.

Here’ a better idea. We should do a project instead. Projects are superior to businesses. Superior because they tell us more about the future. It can sample our predicted future reality and test it for truth. In addition to that it has a number of micro benefits which add up to something significant.

  • A project helps us get over our inertia. It’s only a project.
  • A project can be bootstrapped more heavily, as we don’t need to build in any scale.
  • A project allows us to do a minimum viable product, but actually mean it, and actually do it.
  • A project is not a life long commitment. We can close it off any time for any reason we choose.
  • A project tells our circle and the market that this is temporary, but worth trying.
  • A project doesn’t need huge resources, only enough to cover one cycle.
  • A project is likely maintain momentum and energy as the finish line is in sight from the start.
  • A project let’s us test our assumptions, but in the real world – the market place.
  • A project can lead to a better conceived project.
  • A project can lead to important collaborations and discoveries.
  • A project can lead to something bigger… maybe even a business.
  • A project….

In fact, when we really think about it, business is simply a project which worked well and got bigger. Or we could say that a business is a number of separate yet continuous projects linked together in perpetuity, performed by the same people and infrastructure.

And so, it’s pretty clear if we just start with a project or tow, we might be lucky enough to end up with a business.

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