Information Overload and Stagnation

There is SO MUCH information available on the internet related to business, startups and micro-ISVs. It’s almost too much. I’ve been reading all I can get my hands on and the more I read the more overwhelmed and discouraged I get! My perfectionist nature and fear of making mistakes makes me feel that I need to research every little detail and get everything exactly right or this new business isn’t going to work out. Which, when I step back and really think about it is of course … nonsense. I’m learning quickly that embarking on this adventure in business is going to teach me much more than just the ins and outs of internet and software entrepreneurship.

I can see that I am going to have to really careful of letting my fear of mistakes or doing something wrong prevent me from moving forward. I mentioned in one of my previous posts that “Just getting started” is one of the biggest obstacles to business success. I would propose the second, and equally obvious, obstacle is keeping our fear of mistakes in check and keeping that momentum moving forward.

In addition to this fear of doing something wrong I also have a tendency to over engineer everything I do and design a process to keep things neat, organized, and on track. While this certainly does have its advantages, it also can become the object of all my efforts rather than focusing on the task I’m trying to accomplish. I read a great blog post a couple days ago that deals with this very situation. It was written by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits on his new blog mnmlist.com. In it he discusses the pitfalls of overcomplicating our tasks and endeavors. Leo’s advice – “When you start something new, sure, there’s a learning process. But also realize that while the learning is good, the doing doesn’t have to be complicated at all. Find the simplest way to do things, and just start doing it. You’ll learn by doing.”.

I’ve taken this advice to heart and am going to strive to stay focused and get this ‘party’ started.