Personal Projects
I’ve got this hot idea.. blah blah. I just don’t have time.. blah blah. Should I use this or that .. blah blah
I’m not talking to/about anyone in particular, but we’ve all heard it all before. Get off your whiney ass, and “Just Do It”.
I decided long ago, that success is all about execution. Getting stuff done. Brains, luck, experience, etc just determine your level of success.
Every higher level of education involves more self motivated execution and the accompanied attrition. “Real Life” is simply the next step. And because there is higher attrition at later steps, the bar for succeeding is even lower. In grade school, the teacher and parents helped the students out, getting things done and checking homework. It took a 92% to get an “A”. By the time, you got to college, if you were able to do a half-assed job by yourself, you were already ahead of the curve because a bunch of people were lost, unable to execute without direction. It only took a 70% on a curve to get an “A”. Now, in “Real Life” the bar is so low you can do pretty well just by “getting stuff done”. An “A” would be lower than 70%, and obviously a “B” and “C” are even lower.
While you’re arguing the merits of one software over the another, think about it. Even though you’re ragging on one of them, the developers executed and got something done. Maybe you don’t like it, but somebody does and somebody is paying real money for it. There are plenty of potential customers everywhere. Niches to be discovered or created. But they can’t be customers until you can sell them something.
Execution: it separates the men from the boys, the people living the dream from the dreamers.
August 23rd, 2005 at 9:07 am
Absolutely; hear, hear!
The best way I’d ever heard it put was by a manager (by his mother, really) while we were having lunch one day (this is when I worked at Comcash a couple years back). He told me his mother always said, “Potential don’t mean shit. There are plenty less capable people out there doing it.” But I really like how you filled it out, “uccess is all about execution. Getting stuff done. Brains, luck, experience, etc just determine your level of success” because it adds to the idea.