Appendix A. Hurry
Most interesting ideas come to me between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. This is sacred time. The day is young, I am rested, and the coffee is fresh. I spend most of this time in the car driving to work. The music is providing a creative, catalyzing ambiance to structure my thinking. I create two or three start-ups during the average drive to work.
And then I get to work and I google my ideas. “How about a service that adds threading to Twitter?”
It’s called Twonvo. Crap.
“Wait, wait, wait, what we need is people feeds. An RSS-type thing that shows me the relevant events for the people I care about.”
Friendfeed. Right. Goddammit.
You’re in a hurry.
Do the math. We are all staring at the same set of data. Yes, there is a lot of data and there is a very low probability that you’re able to surf it all, but here’s the rub: there’s a lot of us. In fact, there’s a shitload of us, and when you combine all of us with the equally huge amount of data, you understand that when I arrive at work and google my great ideas, I’m no longer surprised when my precisely designed drive-to-work business model is already in play.
You’re in a Hurry
The epiphany I want to talk about is this: what are you waiting for? Seriously. I know you’ve got a mortgage and 1.5 kids, but during your sacred time when you discover that bright idea, and subsequently discover that no established competitor exists...why aren’t you making the leap?
I know what you’re waiting for.
See, you’ve been doing the same comfortable thing I’ve been doing for 20 years. You’re obeying the structure of the organization where there are charts that describe who owns what and who owns whom. I am intimately familiar with the mindset that reads:
“We will complete our work by following the rules of mediocrity.”
Do just enough. Don’t rock the boat. Make yourself indispensable without being noticeable.
And it works. There is absolutely no way to argue that following the rules doesn’t result in a comfortable life, but...
You’re in a hurry.
Maybe you’re waiting for validation. You’re waiting for that someone you respect to say, “Yes, you bright person, you should do that thing.” It was your parents when you were a kid, and then it was your first boss, but now it simply needs to be you.
What you need to understand about these people who support you is that they’re not here to slow you down; they’re here to get the hell out of your way so you can be brilliant. You need to discover the moment when you actually know better than everyone around you—when you make the first move without asking permission.
Try it. You don’t need to quit your job and go build the next Twitter. Try it with something small. A thing where you’d normally preflight it with your boss, bounce the idea around the hallway a bit, and then move forward. Skip the preflight. Skip the hallway, and move on your idea.
Don’t worry if someone else is already working on your idea. I’m certain they are, but they are decidedly not you, and it’s the you that makes your idea unique.
Whether you’re successful or not, it’s a terrific way to get in a lot of trouble. There’s a long list of established rules and regulations that you violate with your creative impertinence, but it feels great, right?
Trusting your gut and charging forward. It can be addictive.
It’s not your only operating procedure. There are teams to communicate with and strategic corporate alignment that needs to be maintained, but then there’s you, on the subway to work, drinking a Starbucks when inspiration strikes, and rather than just soaking in that brief moment of illumination, I want you to do something about it because...
You’re in a hurry.