Start before you feel ready

Published 9 months ago • 1 min read

Hi Reader,

What have you been waiting to start on?

Maybe you want to:

Write a book
Start a business
Record a podcast
Publish a newsletter

But for some reason, you haven’t started yet. It’s not the right time. You don’t feel ready. You don’t think you’re good enough. Other people do it better.

The problem is, there’s never going to be a perfect time. And if you wait until you “feel ready”, you’ll have waited far too long. No one’s going to give you permission.

You have to give yourself permission. The permission to be imperfect and start before you’re ready.

James Clear talks about this in his story about meeting Sir Richard Branson: Successful people start before they feel ready:

If there was ever someone who embodied the idea of starting before they felt ready to do so, it’s Branson. The very name of his business empire, Virgin, was chosen because when Branson and his partners started they were “virgins” when it came to business.

Branson has started so many businesses, ventures, charities, and expeditions that it’s simply not possible for him to have felt prepared, qualified, and ready to start all of them. In fact, it’s unlikely that he was qualified or prepared to start any of them.

Branson had never flown a plane and knew nothing about the engineering of planes. Yet he started an airline company anyway.

James continues:

If you’re working on something important, then you’ll never feel ready. A side effect of doing challenging work is that you’re pulled by excitement and pushed by confusion at the same time.

You’re bound to feel uncertain, unprepared, and unqualified. But let me assure you of this: what you have right now is enough.

You’re always going to wish you started sooner.

What if you started today?

PODCAST

Ryan Holiday on Jocko Podcast

Ryan joins Jocko Willink in this 4-hour podcast: “Lessons from the Stoics. Discipline, Leadership, Life.”

If you’re looking for a long and engaging podcast to listen to, this episode is really good.

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Have a great week!

—Nathan

Nathan Barry

I'm a designer who turned into a writer who turned into a startup CEO. My mission is to help creators earn a living. Subscribe for essays on building an audience and earning a living as a creator.

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