Failure Beats Daydreaming.

Read time: 6 minutes

Hey, welcome back.

Last week, we talked about what I never asked my dad. You can read that (and all past issues, here)​

Today I want to talk about the most comfortable place a business idea can live and why it's killing your chances of ever building it.

Your Head Is A Dangerous Place For An Idea

There's a stage where thinking about an idea becomes a hobby. You imagine people buying it. You picture the freedom the money could give you. You start planning what you'd do once it takes off.

And because you care about it, you want to give it a proper chance. So you keep preparing. There's always one more thing to research. One more conversation to have with yourself about whether the timing is right. One more blog post to read about validation before you actually go and validate it.

An idea can live in your head for years like this. And as long as it stays there, it still has every chance of working exactly as you hoped. Nobody has challenged it. Nobody has asked you a question you can't answer. Nobody has shrugged and said "I don't think I'd use that."

The idea is perfect because nobody has touched it yet. And that's exactly the problem.

The First Response Will Hurt

I remember the first time I explained what would become Heights to someone outside my immediate circle. I thought the pitch was clear. I'd been thinking about it for months. I knew exactly what the product would do and why it mattered.

The person listened politely and then asked a question that made me realise I'd been solving a problem from my own perspective without considering whether anyone else experienced it the same way. It stung. I'd spent weeks building something in my head that this person had poked a hole in within thirty seconds.

But that hole was the most useful thing anyone had given me up to that point. Because now I had a real question to investigate instead of an assumption I was treating as fact.

That's what happens when you let someone respond to your idea. It gets complicated. It gets messy. Some of the things you were sure about turn out to be wrong. And you get information that you could never have generated by thinking harder inside your own head.

Your Idea Doesn't Need More Thinking. It Needs A Stranger's Opinion.

I've invested in over 100 startups and the founders who take longest to launch almost always share the same trait. They're perfectionists who use preparation as a way to avoid the discomfort of putting something imperfect into the world.

They'll spend three months building a website before they've spoken to a single customer. They'll agonise over pricing before they've confirmed anyone would pay anything at all. They'll design a logo, write copy, build a landing page, set up an email sequence, and do everything except the one thing that would actually tell them whether the idea works: asking someone to buy it.

I get it. Preparation feels productive. It gives you the sense that you're making progress without exposing yourself to the possibility that the whole thing might not work. But the truth is that no amount of preparation will answer the question that only a real human response can answer.

Will someone actually want this?

You won't know until you ask. And the longer you wait to ask, the more attached you become to the version of the idea that only exists in your head.

Make The First Attempt Embarrassingly Small

You don't need a website. You don't need a brand. You don't need a fully formed product.

Write a short description of who you help and what you'd do for them. One paragraph. Then send it to one person who might actually need it. Not a friend. Not your mum. Someone who has the problem you think you're solving.

They might say no. They might not reply at all. They might ask a question that exposes a gap in your thinking you hadn't considered.

All of that is useful. All of that is progress. And all of it is infinitely more valuable than another week of thinking about it in the shower.

When Joel and I started the Heights newsletter, our first attempt was laughably simple. We read a scientific paper, wrote a short email translating it into plain English, and sent it to a handful of people we knew. No design. No strategy. No growth plan. Just one useful email to see if anyone cared.

Some people replied saying it was helpful. That was enough. One small signal that we were onto something. Everything that followed, the 250,000 subscribers, the product, the company, all of it grew from that one tiny attempt that took us an afternoon.

One Attempt By Friday

If you've been sitting on an idea, here's what I'd suggest.

Pick the smallest version of it that would let a real person respond. Write it down. Be specific enough that you'll know when you've done it. Then do it before Friday.

Before you do, write down what you think will happen. Be honest. Maybe you expect to be ignored. Maybe you're worried someone will ask something you can't answer.

Afterwards, compare what actually happened to what you predicted. You'll probably find that the reality was less dramatic than the scenario you'd built up in your head. The rejection was quieter. The feedback was more useful. The experience of putting something out there was less painful than the experience of holding it in.

And now you have something real to work with. A response. A question. A direction. Something that came from the world, not from your own assumptions about the world.

That's worth more than another month of preparation.

To sending it before you're ready,

Dan

P.S. If your first attempt makes you think "I should have done that differently," that's the whole point. You just learned something in one afternoon that would have taken you months of thinking to figure out. Do the second attempt next week.

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In my goal to help more entrepreneurs/people who are looking to level up their careers, I've just started taking 1-1 consulting calls (only 1 a week) Why book a call? Some of my expertise/success: I've built 6 startups. 3 fails, 1 win, and 2 still going. E-Commerce: Heights - with revenue over $40M a year. Community: Foundrs, one of the UK's top founder communities Podcasting: Leaders Media - Bootstrapped to #1 in business and 10M downloads​ Health/Mental Health: Overcame depression, insomnia, burnout and anxiety in pursuit of success​ Angel Investing: I've invested in over 100 companies Personal Brand: Over 400,000 followers across social Hear me on Diary of A CEO with Steven Bartlett​ So if you're interested in booking a session with me to talk all things business or building a personal brand, book for 30-minutes or 45-minutes. (limited spots). Book a Call with Dan

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