In a world that’s built on the back of doers, it’s high time we stop perfecting in our head. While pursuing my masters degree in college I started using the phrase “I’ll wing it”, I overdid it a bit though, then again I got through with a distinction. It’s this toxic yet resourceful trait I developed wherein I cut down on overthinking and anxiousness and just “did” whatever I was supposed to and then dealt what happened. I call it toxic because a part of me is still not fully comfortable doing it since it’s not well thought off, but I’ve seen it work so many times, I can’t stop now.
No discounts to thinking, planning and research, but you wait too long and the opportunity fades or someone else has snatched it.
I’ll try to explain with a rather odd example, have you tried to kill a fly but just stood there with a newspaper in your hand in attack position way too long and then whoosh it’s gone? I’m saying just swat at sight. Okay not “just” swat, I’m saying decide to give it a few seconds, as soon as time’s up and you’ve not had the “perfect” opportunity yet, swat at sight. I’d rather swat and miss than be the fool who just waited without doing anything.
The world for some reason has a way of making things happen when you start. When I see the current company that I work for (rtCamp), or any organisation out there like your Facebook, Google, etc, I can’t imagine the founders having that much visibility as to what’s exactly going to happen years down the line, they just started off with a simple idea, developed on it, were consistent, iterated and voila. Okay not “voila”, it did take a lot of hard work, tears and sweat, but that’s the only realistic way, right? Well, I hope I’m right.
While reeling my way on Instagram, I watched this reel by Mark Zuckerberg where he talks about how the idea of a single eureka moment is a dangerous lie and ideas don’t come out fully formed, they only become clear as you work on them. It made so much sense, I just sat there thinking about it, and it was tragic to reflect on all the opportunities I missed thinking but wait, there are going to be plenty ahead as well, we’ll take some of those!
So when you see that fly next time, breathe, calculate and swat! Never forget to swat!