Photo credit to Katie Moum - https://unsplash.com/photos/empty-road-surrounded-with-trees-with-fog-5FHv5nS7yGg
It’s been very foggy here for the last two days. As I drove to Amp Lab this morning to deliver a grant check to a student award winner, I noticed one stretch of road where the fog obscured nearly everything - little was visible in this big patch of fog.
Then I noticed how as I drove forward just a few yards, more objects would become visible - and then even more as I continued. It reminded me of something my colleague Bob Kniskern had said years ago when I worked for him at Adaptive MicroWare.
Bob is half physicist, half philosopher, and half entrepreneur (yeah, I know the math). He talked one day about how something very cool could be just over that hill or around that corner, but until we take a step closer we can’t see that cool thing. Bob also related it to mind and attitude. If you don’t believe there is a possibility of something cool being over the hill, you won’t take that step over the hill - or maybe you won’t recognize it if you DO take the step. Belief can free you to start or to recognize success.
This way of thinking has two implications or benefits for entrepreneurs.
First, taking concrete action.
Taking a step forward could be building a prototype and testing it. The step forward could be simply having discussions with your target customers. It could be testing some new landing pages. It could be finding that co-founder. Taking a concrete action puts you in a new place. You’ve moved forward a bit in the fog. You can see and learn new things that you never envisioned from your old position in the fog.
Second, believing in success.
OK, so you can’t just wish something into being, duh!
But, as Henry Ford is credited as saying, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.” Believing that there is a solution opens your mind to new ideas. It might open you to taking some exploratory concrete action - to make that prototype, put it out there, and see what happens.
At the risk of sounding totally obvious, here’s some advice. When you are stuck, take some action - any action - to move your business forward. It doesn’t need to be perfect or earth shattering. Just move in the fog. See what the world looks like from that new perspective. And, if there is a good solution out there, remember that believing a solution does indeed exist somewhere in the first place will allow you to recognize it for what it is.
Have fun out there!