Day 674 - Start or finish? - https://golifelog.com/posts/start-or-finish-1667612242626
Gold nugget from James Clear’s recent newsletter:
“In some areas of life, value is unlocked by starting. Even a five-minute workout or a short walk can reset your mood and benefit your body. In other areas, value is unlocked by finishing. It does you no good to build a bridge halfway across the river. You need to complete the project to realize the value. Do you need to start or finish? Are you building a body or building a bridge?”
He’s probably talking about writing and creative projects, but I see so much overlap with indie hacking, making products, starting small bets.
When you’re still a noob and not launched anything substantial yet, it makes sense that starting has more value than finishing. Because beginners worry too much about the finished product too much. What if it’s not perfect? What if people laugh at my mistakes and bugs? Value is unlocked when you start. When you ship. When you launch.
The same thing for earning your first $1 from the internet. You can launch products all year but if your goal is freedom from 9-5, then you got to launch a paid product. Starting with that first $1 has immense value in opening up your mind and expanding the horizon on what’s possible.
Once you launch enough and are making some small revenue from your small bets, finishing starts to have more value. Launching is easy. Sustaining for the long game is finishing. Finishing as in truly finishing and hitting your goal. Usually that involves doing the tasks that you hate in order to get to a goal of say, ramen profitability. Learning marketing even though you’d rather code more features. Rethinking ads even though you don’t have a good impression of ads. It does me no good to keep building new things but not seeing them through to full potential. You realize the true value (of financial freedom) only when you finish.
And it’s not homogenous at each stage of progress, as a noob or a veteran. Even as a veteran, there will be tasks or sub-goals—like new work areas/opportunities—where you’ll benefit from starting than finishing. It’s more of what’s more predominant in your overall trajectory.
The trick is to not hold on to either stance too strongly, and be objective.
So do you need to start, or finish?
“In some areas of life, value is unlocked by starting. Even a five-minute workout or a short walk can reset your mood and benefit your body. In other areas, value is unlocked by finishing. It does you no good to build a bridge halfway across the river. You need to complete the project to realize the value. Do you need to start or finish? Are you building a body or building a bridge?”
He’s probably talking about writing and creative projects, but I see so much overlap with indie hacking, making products, starting small bets.
When you’re still a noob and not launched anything substantial yet, it makes sense that starting has more value than finishing. Because beginners worry too much about the finished product too much. What if it’s not perfect? What if people laugh at my mistakes and bugs? Value is unlocked when you start. When you ship. When you launch.
The same thing for earning your first $1 from the internet. You can launch products all year but if your goal is freedom from 9-5, then you got to launch a paid product. Starting with that first $1 has immense value in opening up your mind and expanding the horizon on what’s possible.
Once you launch enough and are making some small revenue from your small bets, finishing starts to have more value. Launching is easy. Sustaining for the long game is finishing. Finishing as in truly finishing and hitting your goal. Usually that involves doing the tasks that you hate in order to get to a goal of say, ramen profitability. Learning marketing even though you’d rather code more features. Rethinking ads even though you don’t have a good impression of ads. It does me no good to keep building new things but not seeing them through to full potential. You realize the true value (of financial freedom) only when you finish.
And it’s not homogenous at each stage of progress, as a noob or a veteran. Even as a veteran, there will be tasks or sub-goals—like new work areas/opportunities—where you’ll benefit from starting than finishing. It’s more of what’s more predominant in your overall trajectory.
The trick is to not hold on to either stance too strongly, and be objective.
So do you need to start, or finish?